


To Protect the Tribe

by Bythia



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Challenge Response, Discussion - Child Abuse, F/M, dumbledore is not good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:13:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 62,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24528184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia
Summary: There were only a few people who knew, that James Potter was a Sentinel and Lily not only his wife but his Guide, too. When Dumbledore cautions them about the heightened threat to their son and suggests the Fidelius Charm, James instincts run high.He needs to protect his son, his Guide and his tribe. But what does Tribe even mean in the modern day era they are living in?
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 24
Kudos: 312
Collections: Fave Stories of Queixo, Love Me Some Crossovers, Rough Trade Presents: The Year of the Sentinel - 2020, Suggested Good Reads





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Den Stamm zu beschützen](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25382461) by [Bythia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia)



> This is the first longer fanfic I wrote in English and it was my Rough Trade entry for April this year. RT was a great experience and it was a lot of fun to write this story. My sinceres thanks to Keira Marcos and the others who organize RT and to the whole community there.
> 
> This could be the first part of a series. I even started plotting the next part already, but I'm not sure if I'll acutally write it any time soon.
> 
> I have no Beta, but I hope I found most mistakes on my own.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters or anything of this world. I just borrowed them to play a little bit, and I don't make money with the stories I borrowed them for. But the words are mine, so please don't copy them to use them as your own. The three chracters not known from the Harry Potter series are my own.
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

James leaned his head against the closed door and listened to Dumbledore’s heartbeat and steps, until the older wizard crossed the line of his wards and disapparated. He was furious and battling against conflicting instincts. His son was in danger and with him his whole family and Tribe. And James could not even say, who was the bigger threat.

He exhaled sharply, as he felt his wife’s hands on his shoulders, her thumbs carefully rubbing over his neck.

“Don’t get lost, my Sentinel.”

Her whispered words brought him back from the edge of his rage. James turned around, gathered Lily in his arms and buried his nose in her hair. For a tiny moment he allowed himself to get lost in his wife with all his senses. It reminded him of the reason why he could not succumb to his strongest and most feral instincts in the face of the danger to his family.

“I want to go and hunt the bastard down, who thinks he can target our son!”, James said darkly.

Lily hummed. “I’m sure we could do that. If we knew where he was, and when he wouldn’t be surrounded by dozens of his followers. But as he is a coward, we know neither.”

James could not help but smile. “I would really like to see the face of someone like – say, the Malfoys or Blacks, when you call their Lord and Master a coward.”

“I’ll be sure to search for the right opportunity to give you this experience.” Lily sighed. “Let us sit down, before Harry notices he his alone in the room and gets upset again.”

“Yes, let’s”, James agreed.

It was a relatively new development, but Harry would not even sleep in his own room any more. James was concerned about the consequences of their situation for his sons development. No child should be confined to its own house and garden. Neither Lily nor Harry had left their property in several month, it was no wonder that Harry had gotten so very clingy.

When James stepped into the sitting room, Harry looked up from his stuffed griffin with such an earnest look, that James’ breath caught. For a very long moment his son seemed to search for something in his face or his bearing. Finally satisfied – even if James did not know how or with what – Harry grinned, waved with the stuffed animal and began babbling at his toys and their cat again.

“I was surprised how much Harry disliked Dumbledore today.” James sat down and pulled Lily with him onto the sofa. For most of the discussion with Dumbledore James had been alone, because Lily had had to leave the room with Harry to calm their toddler down.

Lily shook her head. “That had nothing to do with Harry’s feeling. He is alarmingly attuned to your magic. And you were so agitated, that your magic was all over the place since the moment Dumbledore stepped through the wards.”

“I just … I really wish, we could trust him. I grew up thinking I could trust him. My parents trusted him nearly unconditionally.” James sighed. “He appears to fight the good fight. And yet … It is utter madness to even consider the Fidelius. Either he is absolutely blind to the risks of this charm or he has plans for us that aren’t in any way good.”

“I don’t know why he thinks we could raise our child confined to this house!” Lily leaned her head against her husbands shoulder. “Do you remember how we talked about leaving the country?”

James nodded. “I know I was … not very welcoming of the idea. But … to tell the truth, that was my second strongest impulse, when Dumbledore said that the dark bastard seems to plan an attack against us and the Longbottoms. - For a moment, all I could think about, was grabbing you and Harry … and a few other people, and just run.”

It had been the beginning of the year when Dumbledore had first told them, that there was a prophecy concerning the Dark Lord and a second person, who maybe could be Neville Longbottom or their Harry. He had refused to tell them the content of said prophecy, but had warned them, that Voldemort knew a part of it and could try to target both families. Dumbledore had cautioned them to go into hiding.

James and Lily had followed this suggestion partly. They had closed the wards around their property, and Lily and Harry had not left the bounds of the wards since late February, while James only left for his job. The wards would not stand long against an attack, but it would give them a warning and some time. The situation had been restricting and nerve wrecking the whole year, but nothing had happened in all the month since then.

James had tried to get more information about the prophecy and about Voldemorts interest in his family, but to no avail. It was hard to get any information about this man, who called himself a Dark Lord, but was not recognised as a threat by their government.

A few days after Harry’s first birthday, Lily had brought up the possibility to leave the country. Everything in James had balked at the idea and he knew, he had not been very nice about it. He had more responsibilities than to protect his family and to leave his country, which he felt obligated to, had seemed completely impossible. But the idea had stuck and in the weeks since James had begun to evaluate who he really wanted and needed to protect and who he felt obligated to.

“We won’t ever be able to raise Harry in peace here in England, James”, Lily said solemnly. “I don’t think this so called prophecy has any value, but as long as Dumbledore and the dark bastard give it any credit, our son will be a target. Both of them are so focused on this country that they wouldn’t follow us, if we leave!”

James nodded. “I’m not to sure about one of them not sending their followers after us, but it would be a lot easier to hide outside of England without being totally isolated. - Would you want to go alone, just the three of us?”

“No. I think … we never talked about what Tribe actually means. The people I’m thinking about taking with us … if I had to put a name on this group, it would be Tribe.”

“I am re-evaluating my own understanding of Tribe”, James confessed.

There was not a lot of public information available about Sentinels and Guides, as they were rare and getting rarer while the world as a whole grew more connected. But in his family had been a Sentinel and Guide pair every other generation without pause. James paternal grandparents had been Sentinel and Guide, but they had died before he had even been a year old.

James’ father had not known a lot about this family heritage, had never had any interest in it and had discouraged his son to seek for more information while he had been a child. James had to rely on his family-grimoire to learn about his heritage, but a lot of the information in it were vague or contradictory.

“Who would you want to take?”, Lily asked.

“Remus and Sirius.” James did not even need to think about those two, but it still hurt a little bit, that he neither could nor want to include Peter. “My cousin and his wife. And that’s weird. I haven’t even spoken to them since the funeral of my parents.”

“But they are family.” Lily took a shuddering breath. “I have the urge to speak with Petunia about this, although I know she will throw me out of her house. And I would like to take Alice with Frank and Neville with us. It’s really hard, that I haven’t seen her for more than nine month now. - And Bathilda.”

James hummed. He knew he should not be surprised about the inclusion of their elderly neighbour. Lily had grown close to her in the month she had been so isolated in this house. Bathilda visited Lily and Harry nearly daily, the older woman as lonely as the young mother and they had mutually adopted one another as family. James expected without a doubt that Harry would someday call Bathilda Grandma.

James frowned. “I think … no, I feel that we should be ready to leave before Dumbledore comes back to cast the Fidelius. If we really want to do this, that is.”

“I feel the same. But that gives us only three days to prepare.”

“It will be easier to prepare to leave the country in this time, than to prepare to go under Fidelius indefinitely.” James sighed deeply. “We’ll have to talk with…”

He was interrupted by a subtle change in the ward. There were only three people who could just cross their wards, and James could identify the person in a matter of seconds, while listening to the noises of their body. “Sirius is here. And he is agitated.”

“Convenient timing.” Lily looked frowning at the grandfather clock besides the door to the kitchen. “To convenient maybe. His shift just ended.”

Which meant Sirius had had to come directly from the ministry and that was highly irregular.

“I’ll go talk with him in the hall.” James pressed a small kiss on Lilys forehead, before he stood up and left the room.

It would be better to talk with Sirius before his son got the opportunity to detect the presence of his godfather, who he loved and adored. There would be no way of separating Harry from Sirius once he saw his uncle.

Sirius came through the front door, before James had crossed half of the hall and he looked as upset as his heartbeat and breathing pattern had indicated. “James, are you all right? And Lily and Harry? - Dumbledore came to me while I had my morning break and told me what happened. If I had been able to switch my shift with someone I would have come earlier!”

James raised his eyebrows. “And what exactly did Dumbledore tell you?”

“He wasn’t here yet?” Sirius grabbed James at his shoulders and stared at him with wide eyes. “He promised to come to you right away! He got a warning from his spy, that the Death Eaters are planing an attack against you!”

James frowned. Something was off with Sirius, but he could not quite place it. “He was here and left just half an hour ago.”

Sirius exhaled loudly. “He is going to cast the Fidelius for you, right?” He waited for a moment, so James nodded. “I thought about it the whole time I was stuck on guard-duty in the court. Do you … have you thought … I mean, who would you want to make your Secret Keeper?”

“You of course.” James regarded his friend with a sceptical look.

He still could not put his finger on what exactly was irritating him in the behaviour of his friend. But it was odd, that Sirius thought they would use this charm without protest. It had been Sirius in the first place who had started a discussion with a few members of the Order of the Phoenix, that had revealed so many vulnerabilities in the Fidelius.

“You shouldn’t.” Sirius shook his head forcefully. “It would be really obvious, don’t you think?”

“Probably.” James decided to go along with Sirius train of thought till he got a clue what bothered him. He shrugged. “People will think you are my Secret Keeper either way.”

“Exactly! If they really want to get to you, they will come after me to get the secret. I wont be able to tell it to them if I don’t know it!”

James frowned. “I don’t understand what you are trying to say, Sirius.”

“I can’t be your Secret Keeper, but I can be a good decoy!”, Sirius explained impatiently.

James shook his head. “That would make you a target!”

The instincts which had come with being a Sentinel screamed against that idea. He could never put Sirius in such a dangerous position to protect himself.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. “More than I already am, being a traitor for my family? Who are all wearing this damn mark? Come on, James!”

“Alright.” James took a breath. “And who would you suggest I make Secret Keeper?”

“Peter.”

And right there was James clue. Sirius had to be influenced by something or someone, otherwise this suggestion would have never come out of his mouth. Sirius and Remus both knew, that James couldn’t trust Peter any more and why that was.

“Why Peter?”, James asked.

“People aren’t as aware that he is one of your closest friends as they are of me. And we can trust him.”

“Okay.” James nodded. He grabbed Sirius arms and prodded him to the small bench beside their wardrobe. “What about Remus?”

Sirius frowned. “I … really, James, I’m not sure if we can still trust him. These are dark times and Remus … he is spending a lot of time with suspicious people.”

“On Dumbledore’s orders”, James reminded. “Sit down, Sirius, please.”

Sirius followed the directive, but looked up at him clearly confused. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes, I think there is.” James sighed. “Do you trust me?”

Sirius drew his eyebrows together. “Of course I do. You are my…”

James interrupted him. “I would like to cast a few diagnostics on you.”

And he would check Sirius and all the things he had on him for monitoring magic. If someone – and he strongly suspected Dumbledore – had cast behaviour modification curses on his friend, then there could very well be monitoring charms as well.

“Diagnostics for what?”, Sirius asked.

James smiled thinly. “That’s why I asked if you trust me.”

Sirius looked at him for a very long moment, then he shrugged. “Okay.”

The first thing he checked were the monitoring charms, which were not there to James relief. The search for the magic that was influencing Sirius took a long time and James had to dig deep into his own knowledge of such magic, until he found the very subtle compulsions in the mind of his friend. If he had not had absolute proof that they had to be there, he probably would have overlooked it entirely.

James had learned to detect and disband this kind of magic during his training as an Auror. As they had shown an affinity to the detection part in this course, he and two other trainees had gotten a specialised training. Sirius had laughed about the extra hours James had to put into this training and James himself had not been very happy about it either at the time.

James was not very skilful in dismantling compulsions, but his instructors had assured him it would come with time and training. He muttered an apology to his friend, before he broke the magic in Sirius mind with little finesse and a lot of brute force. He could do nothing to prevent Sirius from getting a headache.

Sirius groaned and nearly keeled over, when James withdrew his magic. “What the fuck?”

James caught his friend by his shoulders to stabilise him. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I need to puke!” Sirius took a deep breath.

James took a step aside, without letting go of Sirius. “Not on me, please!”

“Idiot”, Sirius muttered. “What was that?”

“You suggested I make Peter my Secret Keeper.”

Sirius looked up at him and blinked a few times. “I would never…!”

“I know. That was a big clue right there. I found two very subtle compulsions. The magic hadn’t settled fully, that made it a little bit easier to find it.”

“So it hadn’t been there long.” Sirius frowned. “Who would … Dumbledore! He tried to manipulate me and trough me manipulate you, too? Why would he do this?”

“Why does Dumbledore do anything he does?”, James asks. “I’m asking myself what he his hiding since our seventh year and haven’t even gotten a glimpse of an answer.”

James had awoken as a Sentinel just a few days after he and Sirius had come home from their sixth year in Hogwarts. Initially they had kept it quit because of his age. Sentinels and Guides awakened in their thirties or forties, not in their teens. Neither James nor his parents had wanted the scrutiny of the ministry about James early awakening. There had been enough information in the Potter library to train James in his new range of senses and magic.

To come back to his seventh year to Hogwarts had been a shock for James. He got used to all the other people without much of a problem, but he had been privy to information he had not had in the prior years. Between the realisation that Lily Evans would someday awake as his guide, and the contradicting signals from one of his best friends, James had not paid attention to Dumbledore for several weeks.

The first time he had primed his senses on the headmaster had been an utter shock, because he had not been able to sense anything from the older wizard. There was magic that could block the abilities of Sentinels and Guides for small areas or single persons. But such was magically and financially expensive and had to be renewed on a nearly weekly basis. In a place like Hogwarts, were there shouldn’t even be any Sentinels or Guides, this magic had been totally out of place.

On an intellectual level James understood, that there could be places and moments where someone would like to be protected against the possible intrusion through the abilities of Sentinels and Guides. But to shield themselves against such every hour on every day in the year was impractical, and spoke of a lot of secrets this person was desperate to hide.

It had left James with a deeply rooted mistrust against Dumbledore, something he had to battle with every day while they seemed to fight on the same side.

After he had finished Hogwarts, his father had asked him to discuss his status as a Sentinel with Dumbledore, so the Order of the Phoenix would be able to use his abilities. It had been one of the biggest fights with his father he had ever had and it had been the first time James had been confronted with the full resentment of his father for anything to do with Sentinels and Guides. But in the end Fleamont had relented and James had been able to keep his secrete from Dumbledore.

It had not been his decision either to join Dumbledore’s Order. Lily had wanted to join the Order of the Phoenix before her guide gifts had awoken and James had followed her out of necessity and loyalty for her. Rationally James knew that the reason for the Orders existence was a good one in the face of the ignorance of the ministry about the whole Voldemort situation. But on an instinctive level he was not able to trust their leader or the Order as a whole.

“I don’t even think the Fidelius itself is a good idea, let a lone Peter as a Secret Keeper.” Sirius shuddered. “What is happening here, James?”

James crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “What is the chance that Dumbledore has the same suspicions about Peter, that we have?”

Sirius shrugged. “Maybe he has more than a suspicion. It depends on how good his spy is. - What was the second compulsion about, if the first was about Peter?”

“To mistrust Remus, I think.” James did not know how to read the intent of such magic, but the things Sirius had said spoke for themselves. Sirius would never suspect Remus of betraying them.

Sirius frowned and fisted his hands. “Is he trying to separate us?”

“It does sound as if Dumbledore is trying to set us up to be betrayed”, Lily said from the door to the living room.

James had heard her move through the room and stop in the door several minutes ago, but Sirius was clearly startled by her sudden appearance. “Hey Lils”, he greeted with a small smile.

“It’s good that you are here, Sirius.” Lily’s smile in return was warm and welcoming. “James and I weren’t even discussing going through with Dumbledore’s plan. We came up with a plan of our own.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Do tell!”

“We’ll leave England and search for a place where we can raise Harry in peace”, Lily answered.

“Alone?” Sirius sounded alarmed.

“Of course not.” James nudged his friend. “I wouldn’t go anywhere without you or Remus. And we will ask a few other people to come with us.”

“Hm.” Sirius furrowed his brows. “And it’s not a problem for you to leave the country?”

“Surprisingly: no.” James shrugged. “I think I misunderstood my own instincts. My early awakening is probably working against me hard in this.”

“Care to elaborate?” Lily was regarding him with a sceptical look and James could feel her confusion.

He sighed. “I feel I need to protect. You, my friends. My Tribe. But until you asked me earlier … I couldn’t have told you, what or who I saw as my Tribe. - The books spoke of territory and of an obligation to the territory. And I feel an obligation to this country. Right after school I thought to protect my Tribe, meant to protect England. That’s why I choose to become an Auror.”

“But your perspective has changed”, Sirius concluded.

James nodded. “These last few month … The obligation to England is more of a … family obligation, I think. In a few years, when I’ll be able to take on the political inheritance of my family … I’ll be a member of a crucial part of our government. But that hasn’t a lot to do with me being a Sentinel. - My Tribe isn’t all of England. If it were, I already would have been driven to kill a whole bunch of people for endangering the Tribe from the inside.”

Sirius snorted. “There are people that need killing! Listening to the court for a whole morning just confirmed that! - So, who other than Remus and me is part of your – our Tribe?”

“My cousin Charles and his wife.”

“My sister and her family.” Lily sighed. “I have a feeling that will change as soon as I talk with her. But I can’t make this cut without…” She shrugged. “Alice feels like Tribe to me. And with her Frank and Neville, too. And lastly Bathilda, our next door neighbour.”

“So you want to gather these people and leave. Were will we go?”, Sirius asked.

James blew out a breath. “I have no idea. It’s probably better to decide that spontaneously anyway. - In three days Dumbledore wants to come back to cast the Fiedlius. Lily and I both feel, that we should leave prior to that.”

“Right.” Sirius nodded. “Because if Dumbledore has plans, he wont be at all gracious about us destroying them. - So, who is going to talk to whom?”

James blinked surprised. “You are just … rolling with this? No doubts? No objections? No protest?”

“James.” Sirius stood up and came to stand directly in front of him. There had not been a lot of moments, when James had seen his easy going and reckless friend so earnest. “In the exact moment of your awakening I knew what my place in this life would be. You will protect our Tribe and I will protect you. Whatever life may throw at us, I’ll follow you.”

“Sirius!” James took a shuddering breath. “I … I don’t know, what…”

“You are my brother in magic. Live with it.” Sirius held James gaze for another long moment, then he turned slightly and was suddenly greening as if the last few seconds had not even happened. “I guess I’ll fetch Remus, yes? Luckily full moon was last week and he will have no problem till we have found a place to settle.”

James shared a look with Lily, but his wife just shrugged, barely holding back her amusement. “I’ll write Charles a letter and ask him to come by tomorrow. And I should probably make an appointment with Gringotts for tomorrow, too.”

“While Sirius goes to Remus, you can go and talk with Frank and Alice”, Lily suggested. “As soon as Sirius and Remus are back, they can take care of Harry, so that I can go and talk with my sister.”

James frowned. “Are you sure you want to meet with her alone?”

“I’m sure it would be a bigger disaster if I would take you with me!” Lily crossed her arms. “I want her to at least hear me out. I’m not sure she would even open her door if she saw you.”

James sighed. “Right.”

He did not like Petunia Dursley any more than she liked him, but he was concerned for Lily. The break between her and her sister had occurred several years ago, but the hurt was as fresh as if it had happened just days ago. He wished he could protect her from it all, but the only thing he could do was to stand with her and give her something to hold onto.

Lily smiled sadly. “I’ll be okay.”

“We’ll be here to make it okay for you afterwards”, Sirius assured.

Lily nodded. “It will help to know to what I’m coming back home to afterwards.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't stand Petunia and in my mind, Harry was never the only child abused in the house of the Dursleys. I made myself cry writing the end of this chapter...
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

“Lily?”

She looked up, as she heard the voice of her neighbour calling through the house. “In the kitchen!”, she answered loudly.

Harry laughed and spat half of the potatoes he was munching on, on the table of his high chair. He made grabby hands in the direction of the door long before Bathilda Bagshot reached the kitchen.

“Here you are, lass!” Bathilda smiled at Lily and walked to Harry to ruffle his hair. “And my dearest little boy, too.”

Lily sighed, when Harry grabbed for Bathilda’s scarf – the only thing that was in his reach – and tried to pull her to him. “There goes any chance of Harry eating more of his lunch.”

Bathilda chuckled. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you. Let me try, maybe he will be satisfied with my attention, when I feed him.” She sat down on the chair besides Harry and took the small bowl from Lily. “What do you have for lunch, Harry, hm? - Ah, that looks like potatoes and spinach, how yummy!”

Harry opened his mouth without protest, when Bathilda held the spoon in front of him.

She looked up to Lily, while Harry was chewing. “It sounded very urgent when James told me to visit you. And your husband looked – troubled.”

Lily sighed. “We had a very disturbing visit today. It seems that the dark bastard … Did I ever tell you why we have Harry and myself confined inside our wards?”

“You mentioned once, that there was some danger to your family.” Bathilda gave Harry another spoon full of spinach and potatoes, when he was showing her his empty mouth in a very demanding way. “But you never elaborated.”

“There seems to be a prophecy that makes Harry a target for the Death Eaters and their Lord.” Lily crossed her arms and let her gaze wander to the window. “Dumbledore thinks they are going to attack us soon.”

Bathilda furrowed her brows. “What does this prophecy say exactly?”

Lily could feel the discomfort and irritation of her friend, but Bathilda was keeping those emotions out of her voice and managed to hold her easy smile for Harry. The little boy was eating with a fervour he had not shown when Lily had been feeding him.

Lily shrugged. “I have no idea. Dumbledore wouldn’t tell us and we have no way to get the records. - It’s not even sure this thing speaks about our son. According to Dumbledore it could be Neville Longbottom, too.”

“Isn’t that the son of your best friend? The one, who is only a day older than your Harry?”, Bathilda asked.

Lily nodded. “Yes. James just went to them. - Dumbledore suggested to cast the Fidelius Charm over this house.”

“I don’t know what this boy is thinking sometimes. - Ha, make that most of the time!” Bathilda huffed and shook her head, but then she cooed at Harry, when he frowned at her.

Lily snorted.

“What is so funny, lass?”

“You calling Dumbledore a boy!”

Bathilda raised her eyebrows. “I have known both Dumbledores since they were children. And I remember their antics very good. - Albus hasn’t changed as much as he likes to pretend since those days.”

Lily stared at her friend thoughtfully. In the beginning she had dismissed a lot of the little stories Bathilda liked to tell. It had seemed so outlandish, that Dumbledore could once have been friends with the man he had later defeated in an infamous duel. But the more time Lily spend with the older witch, the more she understood, that Bathilda’s thoughts were not as overshadowed by age as she had initially assumed.

“What are you thinking about?”, Bathilda wanted to know.

“There was a time when I thought you … a little mad”, Lily confessed.

Bathilda hummed, while Harry regarded the next spoon full with a lot of scepticism before he opened his mouth. “You wouldn’t be the first one to think so. People nowadays have a very … tight and focused view on Albus Dumbledore, that he is fostering every chance he gets. My memories of his childhood and youth do not suit this picture.”

Lily nodded. “He is hiding a lot.”

“Hiding and planing. He is never not planing.” Bathilda sighed. “I often wondered … He is revered for a duel he won because Gelert wasn’t able to harm the one person he ever truly loved. And there weren’t even any witnesses to this duel. We only know what he and Gelert told us about it.”

“You think they lied about what occurred?”

Bathilda shrugged. “I spent a lot of time analysing all the information that are available about those years between the summer Gelert spend here with me and the day, he surrendered to Albus. There are contradictions that can’t be explained by the different sources they are coming from.” She shook her head like she wanted to clear her thoughts. “Anyway, those considerations aren’t helpful at the moment.”

Lily smiled reassuringly. “Every bit of information we can get on Dumbledore could be helpful. I would really like to know what his plans for me and my family are!”

Harry interrupted Bathilda’s answer, when he hit the next spoon full of his lunch with a little fist, that was still holding onto the old witch’s scarf. He was frowning at the nearly empty bowl and shaking his head.

“Someone seems to be full!” Bathilda chuckled. “That doesn’t mean my scarf has any interest in your lunch, Harry!”

Lily stood up and cleaned Bathilda’s clothes and her son with a wave of her wand. “I have come to a whole new level of appreciation for magic since I’m a mother!”

Bathilda laughed. “You and every other witch who ever had this privilege!”

Lily lifted Harry out of his chair and motioned Bathilda to follow her into the living room. “It is time for your nap, sweetheart, even if it’s a little bit late.” As if on clue Harry yawned. He did not protest when Lily put him in the little bed that stood on the other side of the room to his playing area.

Bathilda had taken a seat on a sofa. “He still doesn’t sleep alone?”

Lily sighed. “I fear he notices a lot more of our emotional tone, than we would like.”

“You aren’t going to follow Dumbledore suggestion, are you, Lily?”

Lily sat down across from her friend. “We won’t. But we are taking the warning very serious. - We will leave the country.”

Bathilda nodded. “That seems to be a good plan. When will you leave?”

“The day after tomorrow.” Lily took a breath. “And we would like you to come with us.”

“Oh, lass.”

“You are … family”, Lily said.

Bathilda regarded her with a piercing gaze. “Tribe. You were meaning to say, I’m Tribe.”

“What … how …”

“I have seen a lot in my very long life.” The older witch smiled warmly. “And I have learned a lot. I’m a historian, darling. And I know of the heritage of the House of Potter. When you and James bought this house two years ago, I knew what you were.”

Lily frowned. “You never said anything. I didn’t even feel anything from you that would indicate you knew.”

Bathilda nodded. “There may be people who are uncomfortable in the presence of a Sentinel or Guide, but I don’t care what your senses are telling you about me. - And I never had to guess why you are keeping it quite.”

“We are to young.” Lily looked to her son, who was not sleeping yet but getting nearer to it with every time his eyes closed. “To young for our gifts to be awake and to young to be parents, really. But both things just happened.”

“And every one of the acknowledged Sentinel and Guide pairs of the last six or seven decades has eventually vanished into the Department of Mysteries.” Bathilda huffed. “The government of this country isn’t going in a good direction for a while now. It’s no wonder really, that people like – what did you call him, the dark bastard?”

Lily grinned and nodded. There was no way she would use one of those blasted names he had been given by the papers and her friends had followed suit in her choice of name.

“It’s no wonder someone like the dark bastard is getting a foothold so easily”, Bathilda continued. “Alone that our government isn’t able to lift this ridiculous taboo! They are playing right into it and are not even investigating this cult of his followers.”

“Because some of them are sitting right in the governing body”, Lily reminded.

Bathilda huffed. “And others are kept out by newly established ridiculous laws. James will turn 27 in something like five or six years, right? Are you planing to come back, when he can take over his seat?”

“Five and a half years.” Lily shrugged frowning. “We haven’t discussed it. We hadn’t even discussed to leave until today. I brought it up one time, but … James is battling against instincts that are contradicting themselves sometimes. I’m not feeling it as harsh as he is, but … I think that’s because I haven’t left this house in month.”

“You should discuss this with your Sentinel before we leave.”

There was something in Bathilda’s voice that made Lily hesitate. The politics in the magical world were still very confusing for her. In Hogwarts no one had spoken about the structure of the ministry or the government and for most of her years at school, Lily had just assumed the government structure was similar to the one she knew from the non magical world. It had been the second half of her six year before she had learned of her error and it had been hard to get any information on it. She still had not had the opportunity to catch up with all the details.

Lily looked at her friend with furrowed brows. “Why can’t we discuss this after we have found a place to stay?”

“Because it will change the kind of place we will be searching for to stay.” Bathilda cocked her head to the side. “You and James have to decide. If you want to abandon this country for good and search for a territory you want to make your home and call your own. Or if you just want to retreat to gather your forces till you can come back with a better foundation.”

Lily stared at her, not sure what she should or could say. She wanted to keep her son safe and give him the opportunity of a more normal childhood than he had experienced in this first year of his life. She had not even thought about the broader ramifications of their decision, let alone even acknowledged that there were such. She had thought James’ urge to hunt Voldemort down was only rooted in his desire to protect Harry. Now she began to suspect that there could be a lot more to it.

Bathilda chuckled. “You are a young mother. Of course you haven’t thought about anything else but your child.”

“My child and my Tribe”, Lily muttered. “I just … I just want us all to be safe. And that’s not possible here as long as Harry is targeted by a lunatic.”

Bathilda left her place to sit down beside Lily and took her shaking hands into her own. “Of course. I understand that. And everyone you have chosen as Tribe and who has accepted to be your Tribe will understand it, too.”

“Accepted to be Tribe?” There was much on her mind, but she just latched onto the first thing that stood out to her.

Bathilda nodded. “The feeling of Tribe isn’t something that just you and James get. I have felt this connection for month. I just couldn’t put a name on it, till you asked me to leave with you. Everyone you and James have chosen as Tribe is feeling a deep connection with you. And everyone of them will have to make a decision about accepting it or declining it in the next few days.”

Lily swallowed. “We know so little about what we are!”

“And you haven’t even fully come into your own yet.” Bathilda smiled warmly. “There is a reason why normally Sentinels and Guides awake later in life. - At your age life is overwhelming on a regular basis without the burden of being a Guide. But you’re doing great, Lily! And you’re not standing alone.”

Lily took a shuddering breath. “You know a lot about Sentinels and Guides.”

“Of course.” Bathilda nodded. “That comes with the profession. I’ll be glad to teach you about all the things you want to know.”

“What happens, when someone declines to be Tribe?” Lily had no doubt she would face such a situation later in the day, when she would go to visit Petunia.

Bathilda drew her eyebrows together. “Who do you think will decline?”

“My sister. We aren’t … When we were children, we were very close. But she didn’t take well to the knowledge of magic. And she married a very xenophobic man. I know she won’t want to come with us. And yet I need to go to her.”

Bathilda sighed. “It will hurt in the beginning. But she is your sister, so being rejected by her would hurt either way. - In the end, you’ll be able to let her go. I imagine, you are subconsciously holding onto her, because she hasn’t outright declined to be part of your Tribe until now. - You’ll finally be able to let this break between the two of you behind you.”

Lily could barely hold back her tears. “That sounds awful.”

“No.” Bathilda shook her head. “It sounds healthy. Keep the memories of your childhood close, but accept that your paths in life have divided.”

Lily took a deep breath and blinked till the tears went away. “Is it influencing you? That you are feeling to be a part of our Tribe, I mean.”

Bathilda laughed. “No, darling. You and James are affected by this a lot more than anyone else.”

“But we are uprooting you and you haven’t even hesitated to do so. You have lived here for … a very long time.”

“Over a hundred years, yes.” Bathilda grinned. “I’m not ashamed of my age, you know. I have another two or three decades in me. I would rather not spend those years alone! I haven’t left this island in a long time. I’m quite ready for a little adventure.”

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Lily had had a little time to compose herself and to mentally prepare for the visit with her sister. Bathilda had stayed with her and they had talked about the logistics of the next two days until Sirius had come back with Remus. She had seen and felt in both men that there were more problems brewing, but she had not stopped to discuss it with them. She was to focused on the pending visit by her sister and they could talk about what was troubling Remus later in the day, when James had come back from the Longbottoms.

While Bathilda had gone back to her house to prepare for their departure and Sirius and Remus had stayed with a still napping Harry, Lily had changed into muggle clothes. When it had come time to leave the property, Lily had hesitated for a whole ten minutes at the boundary of the wards. It had been in early February when she had last taken this step and it was unexpectedly frightening. She had become to accustomed to her confinement.

Lily apparated to a park near the house of her sister and took her time on the walk to the house. She dreaded this meeting so much, but knew she could not evade it. As it was Tuesday and early afternoon, she hoped to at least evade her brother-in-law.

She had only been once at the house of the Dursleys, when her parents had insisted their younger daughter should accompany them during the visit to their older daughter. It had been in the summer after Lily’s seventh year and it had been a very tense afternoon. The neighbourhood had not changed much in the three years since and that was probably perfectly fine with Petunia.

Lily did not allow herself to hesitate when she reached Number 4 Privet Drive. She straightened herself, rang the bell two times and did not have to wait long for the door to be opened.

Petunia regarded her with a dark gaze. “What do you want?”

Lily swallowed hard. She had not seen her sister since she had awoken and was not prepared for the instant empathic connection, that only conveyed resentment and hatred. Bathilda had talked about a connection between James and Lily and their Tribe, but Lily had not fully understood it till this moment, when she was for the first time aware of this connection with her sister. It was there with her friends, but that had come so slow and naturally that she had never wondered about it.

Petunia crossed her arms, her fingers digging deep into her arms. “Well?”

“I need to talk to you.” Lily took a deep breath. “May I come in?”

Petunia looked up and down the street, before she huffed. “That’s probably better than the neighbours seeing you in front of my house. I don’t need this gossip.”

“A visit by your sister is worth gossip?” Lily followed her through the short hall to the kitchen, where she sat down on the chair Petunia was motioning her to with a wave of her hand.

“As far as my neighbours are concerned, I don’t have a sister. And I would like to keep it that way.” Petunia leaned against the kitchenette and crossed her arms anew. “What do you want? I haven’t seen you since the funeral of our parents and I wouldn’t have been sad if I would never have had to see you again.”

“Yes, I know you hate me.” Lily had suspected that for a long time, but to feel it as she was at the moment was a harsh reality check. And yet, there was something in the house that let her stay and let her bear the vitriol. “But you are still my sister. And there are things happening in the magical world…”

Petunia interrupted her with a harsh voice. “I don’t care what’s happening in your world.”

“There is a terrorist group and they are targeting my family”, Lily said hurriedly.

“What have you done?” Petunia made a half step in her direction and Lily felt herself being hit by a wave anger. “Will they come here? Have you put my husband’s and my life in danger?”

Lily shook her head. “I don’t think they will come here. But James and I are going into hiding. And … I figured I should give you the chance to come with us.”

Petunia sneered. “I don’t want to have any part in your life, Lily! - You shouldn’t have come here. You are not welcome here!”

“Yes, I … I get that.” Lily frowned at her sister. “Didn’t you have a child, too?”

“I have a son, if you need to know.”

At her sisters words, Lily realized that what was holding her in the house was another person beside her sister she was sensing. And Petunia had not even mentioned her son when she had thought Lily had brought danger to her house. “Is something wrong with him?”

“Why would you care?” Petunia leaned back again, distancing herself as much as possible from Lily.

Lily exhaled sharply. “You weren’t worried about him. You were worried for yourself and your husband, but not for your son. - Wasn’t a child of your own all you ever dreamed of?”

“I was wrong. Obviously.”

Lily repeated her question: “What’s wrong with him?”

“The same thing that’s wrong with you.” Petunia huffed and turned to the side. “I should never have ignored Vernon’s concerns. Or his wishes.”

“You are resenting your own child just because he is magical?” Lily could not even begin to comprehend her sisters behaviour.

“I have seen what a magical child does to a family.” The revulsion in Petunia could not be missed, even without empathy. “I wont end like our parents did.”

Lily frowned. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“It’s your magic that killed our parents!”, Petunia spat.

“They were killed in a car accident!”

Petunia sneered. “That’s just semantics. You weren’t there, Lily. - You didn’t see what it did to our parents, that you were away in this school the whole year, without any possibility for them to contact you or see you. You weren’t there to see how it changed them, how it destroyed them. They adored you and you abandoned them without a thought.” She looked at Lily with hard, cold eyes. “Hadn’t you just told them of your engagement on the day they were killed? - Dad was distracted because of your final step out of their life.”

Lily swallowed hard. “The accident wasn’t their fault. They didn’t have a chance to evade this lorry.”

Petunia huffed. “You haven’t changed a bit since we were children, still escaping into your little lies, so you won’t have to face the consequences of your actions!”

Lily closed her eyes and willed herself to not let the words of her sister get to her. Petunia had started to blame her for everything since Severus had uttered the word “magic” the first time in her presence. But this hurt so much more than anything else Lily had ever been accused of by her sister.

Finally Lily took a deep, calming breath and looked up at her sister with as much composure as she could muster. “What are you planing to do, now that you have a magical child of your own?”

“He wont be magical for much longer”, Petunia answered.

Lily looked at her appalled. “What did you say?”

“We had a visit from this guy – the one who was running your school, after Dudley’s accident.” Petunia grimaced. “He assured us he could bind this … freakishness as soon as Dudley was two years old. Really, I wish it could be earlier!”

Lily stood abruptly. “You can’t do this!”

“It’s my son. I can do what ever I deem necessary!”

Lily exhaled sharply. “It will kill him! He will die before he is even as old as you are now!”

Those bindings were illegal and so very dark. They would confine the magical core of the child and hinder its growth. But their magic itself would grow as if the core was free and without anywhere else to go, it would turn against the victim of the binding. It would destroy the body from the inside and at the latest the second magical maturation in their twenties would kill the victim. It was a slow and painful death, bringing years over years of pain.

“We were informed. Anything is better than to have a magical child in my home!” Petunia put her chin up and gazed down at Lily.

“We are talking about the murder of your own child!” Lily threw her hands up high. “You are talking about murdering your own son!”

“We’ll cure him of this infestation!”, Petunia spat. “And as soon as this has happened, he’ll want for nothing for how ever short his life may be!”

“You are hating your own child so much?”, Lily asked desperately.

“I should have never gotten pregnant. Vernon didn’t even want to have children. But I knew he wouldn’t ask me to get rid of it, if I just got pregnant.” Petunia took a shuddering breath and averted her eyes, but that could not hide her tears. “He told me I should heed my family’s history and consider what this child could become. But I thought … It’s in me, too. I never should have held onto those silly childhood dreams.”

Lily wanted to scream at her sister, that she had no right to her tears, but she bit her tongue. “I can take him. You don’t have to kill him!”

Petunia shook her head. “No. It’s better if I can tell the people my child is dead than to have to find an explanation for his disappearance!”

Lily felt gutted. This woman was not the girl she had once looked up to and loved so much. She wanted to curse this woman so bad for putting her own image before the well-being of a child.

“I could just take him with me and you couldn’t do anything.”

It was partly an empty threat. Dumbledore had been here and Lily would certainly search for monitoring charms before she left, but there could be other ways he could be notified of Dudley's disappearance. It would not take him long to end up in front of Lily’s and James’ house and they needed the next days to prepare.

“You would regret that.” The tone in Petunias voice send a cold shiver down Lily’s back. “Your world would regret it. - I’m capable to proof to everyone the existence of your world. I used the time wisely I had to live with you under the same roof.”

Lily felt her blood drain from her face. “What have you done?”

Petunia snorted. “As if I would just tell you. - And don’t even think about letting me forget anything. If I ever loose time again, there will be multiple sources who expose the secrets of your people to the world.”

“I never took your memories!”, Lily protested.

“Not you, no.” Petunia shook her head. “But your people. They did it two times before you went to their cursed school. I realized what must have happened on those two missing days when your people told us they would just take our memories if we violated your secret. It will never happen again to me without consequences for your people!”

“Don’t you think someone who is able to take your memories is capable to search your memories for those so called fail safes?”, Lily asked.

“They can try. _You_ can try for all I care.” Petunia huffed. “You wont find all. However, if you do, you wont get to all the right places, at least not in time to stop your downfall!”

Lily nodded in understanding. She was sure Petunias scheme would not hold against a team of Aurors or Unspeakables, but she alone would risk the secret of the magical world if she tried anything. “We … I can fake his death, Tuney! Than you don’t have to find an excuse. A-and you wont have to wait for up to twenty years to … to get rid of him.”

“Don’t call me that stupid name!”

Lily closed her eyes. “Please, just think about it. How old is – Dudley was his name, right? How old is Dudley now?”

“Sixteen month as of tomorrow”, Petunia answered.

“Okay.” Lily straightened her shoulders. “That’s maybe a little bit old but not to much outside the norm to stage it as sudden child death. … I … I can give you a … a fake body that will fool your authorities. They could even perform an autopsy.”

Not that she had ever done such a thing, but she had read about it. To create such a detailed homunculus in only two days would be a challenge, but it should be possible. She was sure Remus would be able to help her, and maybe Bathilda, too.

Petunia regarded her for a long time with a calculating look. “And your authorities?”

“Why should they look into it?” Lily shrugged. “You can cremate him, so even if they did someday have questions they couldn’t proof anything.”

And Lily would be sure to change Petunia’s and Vernon's memories in such a way, that they would not remember they indeed had not buried their own son but a replica. She had never thought she would get into a situation where she would have to use this part of her Guide-abilities, but she would not have any qualms about it. She could accomplish that without leaving a void in Petunias memories to alert her, especially after she had been so thoroughly warned about it.

“How long would you need?”, Petunia asked.

“I could come back in two days.”

“Yes. Good.” Petunia turned her back to Lily. “But to be clear: Dudley Dursley will be dead. He will be burned and buried in a nice place on a nice graveyard. I don’t care what you call this boy afterwards. He’ll be no longer my child. - Neither Vernon nor I would ever want to find anyone standing at our door and asking after their birth parents.”

Lily took a slow and deliberate breath. “That won’t be a problem.”

“When exactly can I expect you the day after tomorrow?”, Petunia asked.

“I … One … One o’clock in the afternoon?” Lily closed her eyes. “Where is Dudley? I – I need to see him. And I’ll need blood and hair from him.”

“He is upstairs. First door to the right”, Petunia answered. “Do hurry, would you? Vernon is coming home soon.”

Lily bit her tongue, stood up, left the kitchen and hurried up the stairs. Since Petunia’s confession that she knew about and had accepted his eventual death, Lily’s senses had searched for the child that was to quit, to sullen, to distant. In a perfect decorated nursery without any personalty she found a chubby boy sitting in a to small cot, looking up at her and just waiting. He was neither showing curiosity for her nor was he shying away, the two things with which Harry reacted to visitors in the most cases.

“Hello, sweet boy.” Lily stretched out her hand and caressed his head so very carefully. “I’m your aunt Lily.”

First she felt a tiny spark of curiosity from him and than such a longing for the little bit of warmth and caring she was showing him, that it took her breath away. He was clean and well fed and at a first glance the nursery was full of all the things a little boy could wish for and needed. But all of that was just the image Petunia wanted to uphold.

Lily smiled sadly. “There is no way that I’m letting you stay here for another two days. My husband and I will take care of you, I promise. You will never miss the embrace of someone who loves you ever again, little one.”

She lifted him out of the cot into her arms and he let it happen without protest, without even making a sound. When she had settled him on her hip, he stretched his hand in the direction of a little Teddy, that lay beside the cot. Before Lily could bend forward to take it, it was levitating up and directly in the boy’s outstretched hand.

“Oh, how very smart of you, darling!”, Lily cooed. “That was a very exceptional act of magic!”

The boy cocked his head and stared at her, pressing the Teddy against his chest.

“Is there anything else you want to take?”, Lily asked, but she did not get a reaction. “Right, James and I can get for you everything you’ll need. And in the meantime Harry will share with you. That’s my own little boy, you know? He is just a few weeks younger than you. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to meet you.”

While talking to the boy in her arms, Lily left the room and climbed down the stairs.

Petunia was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, regarding her with furrowed brows. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not letting him stay with you for two more days. You haven’t taken proper care of him in days, if not weeks.” Lily took care not to raise her voice or let her anger or desperation show in any other way.

Petunia crossed her arms. “He is clean and fed and healthy.”

“But evidently not loved.” Lily sighed. “If you are concerned about your _neighbours_ … just tell them, he isn’t feeling well. No one will question it, if he is ill in the days leading to his death.”

Petunia scoffed. “All right. Don’t bring him with you in two days. And don’t forget to come back. - Your people wouldn’t thank you.”


	3. Chapter 3

The ancestral home of the Longbottoms was a big, impressive mansion with a vast garden. James had often accompanied Lily here in the first two and a half years after their graduation from Hogwarts, when she had visited her best friend. Despite the four years between them, Lily and Alice had fast become friends in Hogwarts and never lost this deep connection after Alice had already graduated, while Lily was still at school.

Each had been the bridesmaid at the weeding of the other and there had never even been a discussion who would be the godmother for either Harry or Neville. Both women had been so delighted when they had gotten pregnant together and when their sons had been born just a day apart. The plan was for Neville and Harry to grow up as brothers, but now neither the mothers nor the children had seen each other in nine month.

James had known the moment in which Lily had asked about their Tribe, that she would want to take Alice and her family with her. He had no problem with it, but was not too sure if Frank would accept it. James had not known Frank prior to his graduation, but they got along well and had established an easy friendship in the month their wives had shared every little bit of their pregnancies with each other.

Frank and Alice had both worked as Aurors prior to her pregnancy, but he had resigned, when she had to take maternity leave. In just a little more than six month Frank would turn 27 and be able to take over the political responsibilities of his family. As far as James knew, Frank had used the last one and a half years to prepare thoroughly for this task.

To leave England would mean to abandon those plans. James had no idea how he could convince the other man of such a thing.

When James arrived at the Longbottom mansion, he was not surprised that he had to wait at the boundaries of the wards. There had been a time in which the wards would have let him pass, but the first warning they had received nine month ago had changed a lot for both families.

It took just a few minutes for Frank to appear on the other side of the gate and let James through the wards. “I’m … huh, I probably shouldn’t be surprised you are here, right?”

“Did you get a visit from Dumbledore, too?”, James asked.

Frank nodded and led James to a terrace at the side of the house, instead to the front door. “He was here for maybe half an hour. He seemed very hurried. - Did you get any information about the prophecy out of him?”

“Nothing.” James shook his head. “Lily thinks it’s utter crap, but I’m not so sure about dismissing it. Either way, as long as other people take any value in it, they pose a danger to us.”

“I asked an … associate to check for me in the Hall of Prophecies if there even was one made”, Frank confessed. “As Dumbledore’s initials are very distinctive, we can be relatively sure that he did indeed witness a prophecy in late November of ‘79.”

“Are the initials helping in identifying the seer?” James frowned. He knew from a previous talk with Frank, that seer and witnesses would only be mentioned by their initials on the label, while any name or title mentioned in the prophecy would appear in full.

“Not really.” Frank shrugged. “And all we know from the label is, that it is concerning a Dark Lord and someone or something other.”

James huffed, while Frank led him through the open doors of the terrace into a sitting room. “So, essentially we know nothing, beside that there is indeed a prophecy.”

“And I find it highly suspect, that Dumbledore isn’t disclosing this prophecy to us, if it could implicate one of our sons.” Frank motioned James to an armchair. “Can I get you something to drink?”

James shook his head. “No, thank you.” He sat down with a huff. “I really wish you hadn’t found proof for this prophecy.”

Frank sat down across from James and sighed. “Me, too. … Or that I had found proof, it wouldn’t concern Neville or Harry. But … It wasn’t planed, you know? We wanted to be Aurors till I turned 27 and then Alice wanted to get a Mastery before any children came into the picture.”

“Yes.” James nodded. “We had taken every possible precaution, too. It was arranged that Lily’s apprenticeship would start in January of 1980. She has lost the place with the Master that had accepted her due to the pregnancy. - And with the things as they are, I have no idea when she’ll be able to persuade her goals.”

Prior to the pregnancy they had already had to postpone the start of Lilys apprenticeship to May, after she had awoken. They had couched it as a mourning period for her parents, as she had awoken just days after their funeral and they had not been able to explain to her Master that she needed time to train her new set of abilities.

The pregnancy had not only cost her her apprenticeship, but it had been a throw back in her training, too. Even James had had to battle with his senses, and he had been confident in their use for years at that point. It had been the sudden setback in her control that had them even discover the pregnancy. And while Lily would have needed a more intense training to master her abilities, the reality had been that she had had to take a step back from it in regard to the life that had been growing in her. James loved his son deeply, but there could not have been a worse time for the pregnancy.

“I’m sorry for Lily, I didn’t know that.” Frank sighed. “But it just confirms … If one or even both of our sons have a prophetised destiny, Fate would have ensured their conception, no matter our own plans. - You have just confirmed for me, that there is something to this prophecy and we can’t just dismiss it.”

James grimaced. “I know.” This knowledge would bring consequences for the way he would have to raise Harry, but those plans would have to wait for another time. “Dumbledore told Lily and me, that the dark bastard seems to be planing an attack against our family and your family.”

“Yes.” Frank crossed his arms. “He told me the same. And he told me to reconsider staying here, as a smaller property would be easier to defend.”

“He outright ordered Lily and me to accept him placing the Fidelius Charm over our house. I mean, he didn’t formulate it as an order, but he clearly wasn’t expecting or accepting any protest.”

Frank drew his eyebrows together. “That’s a very … risky security measure.”

“There is more”, James said. “Where is Alice?”

“She spend a long weekend with her brother and took Neville with her”, Frank explained. “It was his birthday on Sunday and she isn’t getting out of this house enough. She’ll be back in the evening. I can convey any information you have.”

James shook his head. “I’ll need an oath from you not to disclose to anyone the things I’m going to tell you. Not even Alice until she took a similar oath.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think I can trust anyone lightly at the moment”, James answered. “I came here to tell you something that pretty few people know. But I need the reassurance, that you wont be able to spread this knowledge as long as I deem it necessary to keep it quiet.”

Frank regarded him for a long moment with an inquiring look, before he hesitantly nodded. “All right. Will a simple magical oath be sufficient?”

James smiled. “Yes. And thank you.”

Frank took a moment to consider his words, before he drew his wand and spoke the oath. James was not so much listing to the words, as he was concentration on his sense of the magic around him. He felt the magic settle around Frank and him with a very clear purpose.

To awake as the Sentinel had not just resulted in a better and a more precise use of his physical senses. He had gained a very clear and very strong sense of the magic in his surroundings. James had learned over the years, that the intent of a person was conveyed a lot more clearly in their magic than in their words.

Frank looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Well?”

James leaned back and forced himself to relax. “I’m a Sentinel.”

“Come again?” Frank stared at him open mouthed.

James grinned. “I am a Sentinel. That’s not unusual in my family.”

“But to be 21 and a Sentinel is absolutely unheard of!” Frank’s voice was hoarse and he conjured a glass of water.

“Yes. And that is the reason why there are only four people – you included! - who know about it.” James crossed his arms. “I have no interest to get to know the Department of Mysteries from the inside. Ever.”

“Lily will be your Guide someday?”, Frank asked.

“Lily is my Guide”, James corrected. “I knew it as soon as I came back to Hogwarts for my last year. But I was very relieved that she didn’t awake till a little more than a year after our graduation.”

“Why are you here? Why are you telling me this, James?”

“How much do you know about Sentinels and Guides?”, James asked.

Frank shrugged. “Not much. As you know, most information about them – of your kind are family lore. And as far as we are aware, there hasn’t ever been a pair in my family. - The most I know is the history part, how Sentinels and Guides all over the world, magical and muggle, helped to hide the magical world from the muggle world after the Statute of Secrecy was created. Muggle Sentinels and Guides vanished inside a few decades afterwards and were forgotten by the Muggles. - And in the last century or so the number of magical Sentinels and Guides is rapidly dwindling, too.”

“I’m not to sure about this last part, actually.” James furrowed his brows. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised, if Lily and I weren’t the only ones hiding our status.”

Frank opened his mouth, but than hesitated a long moment. “Yes, I can see this logic. - You know, not to long ago there was a discussion about the history books used and available in Hogwarts, because of how they are regarding Sentinels and Guides. Of the modern history books there is only one author who isn’t painting your kind as a remnant of a more primitive time, no longer needed, no longer useful, no longer wanted. It was suggested this one author shouldn’t be represented in Hogwarts any longer.”

James frowned. “I haven’t heard of this!”

“No, I imagine not. It was kept quiet and in a very exclusive circle. They were talking about besmirching the character of one of the most revered and honoured British historians.” Frank shrugged. “At the moment, these ideas couldn’t go anywhere. But one or two decades down the line, maybe as soon as this author has died, the situation could change dramatically. It’s not just Muggel-borns that are facing more and more prejudices.”

“A reason to take our inheritance very serious”, James said darkly.

“Yes.” Frank nodded earnestly. “I don’t know much more about Sentinels and Guides. They were protectors in old times and held significant roles in early societies.”

“We are still protectors.” James sighed. “And while we have changed with society, and our imperative has changed, there are some things that have remained unchanged. - Even in our time, Sentinel and Guide pairs will gather a Tribe around them, although our society isn’t working in these structures any more.” He paused and looked down at his hands. “And I really hadn’t understood what that meant until earlier today.”

“Your … I’ll call it Sentinel-instincts, yes? They were tripped by Dumbledore’s warning?”, Frank asked confused.

James nodded. “And by Dumbledore’s behaviour. - Lily and I wont follow his plan. We will leave the country to protect Harry. … And we are asking everyone we are perceiving as our Tribe to come with us.”

Frank looked at him dumbstruck. James waited and eventually the older wizard took a deep breath. “You are here, because you see Alice, Neville and me as part of your Tribe.”

“Yes.” James cocked his head. “And I know you have other plans for the near future. But your son is targeted, too, and if Lily and I leave, the Death Eaters will probably focus on you.”

“Are you leaving for good or are you planing on coming back?”, Frank wanted to know.

James shrugged. “No idea. I haven’t thought about it. In this moment, I’m just focused on protecting Harry. But…” He closed his eyes and concentrated on those impulses inside him, that were not revolving around his son. “Shortly after Harry's birthday Lily suggested for the first time, that we could leave England. And I … couldn’t even think about it. - I’ll have to talk with Lily about it. That’s not a decision I can make alone.”

“As I will have to talk with Alice about your question, even if I think I know my wife’s answer”, Frank agreed. “Let’s say you leave England with the plan to come back. Under what circumstances would you come back?”

“I would need all the support I can get, so I should probably come back as soon as I’ll be able to take my place in the government”, James concluded. “If you would decide to come with us, what would happen with your inheritance?”

“My uncle has already tried once to take it from me.” Frank crossed his arms and shook his head. “I’m sure he will try again, but he has no leg to stand on till I’m 33. If I haven’t taken over the seat until then, he could legitimately challenge my right to it. - But I wont let this happen.”

James frowned. “What uncle?”

“My father’s brother Algernon. The one who is telling all and sundry my son would be a Squib, although he hasn’t even met Neville yet!” Frank snorted. “He wants the power that comes with my families political inheritance. But he wont get it.”

“So it would be better for you to stay here?”, James asked deflated. Lily wouldn’t be happy with him when he came back to tell her, her best friend wouldn’t come with them.

Frank shrugged. “Not necessarily. As I said, I have six more years to take over from the proxy my father set prior to his death. And under the right circumstances it could be more advantageous to wait a little longer. Say, five and a half years.”

“You mean, if we come back together.”

“Had you planned to take the seat when you turn 27?”, Frank asked.

“Of course. I … know, my father wasn’t very interested in politics and I haven’t learned anything from him about it. But I felt an obligation to my families legacy long before I awoke.” James leaned forward and propped his elbows up on his knees. “I have still a lot to learn about politics and the last three years weren’t very forthcoming in letting me find time for it.”

Frank mirrored his move and looked at him solemnly. “We’ll both be newbies stepping into seats that were practically dormant for years. All a proxy can do is vote. They can’t take part in any discussion, can’t bring forward any petitions or proposals. We’ll both have few connection and will be regarded with a lot of mistrust. - I tried desperately to make the right connections in the last twenty month, but I wasn’t very successful.”

“We wont be able to make any connections if we are hiding somewhere outside of England”, James considered.

“Maybe not in England, but the right international connection could be helpful. And if we come back together and work together, we could have a bigger impact.” Frank frowned. “I have thought about this before. But I wasn’t sure if you were even interested in the politics. And I didn’t want it to appear as if I wanted to pressure you. - Alice would never forgive me, if I did something to alienate you and Lily from us.”

James nodded thoughtfully. It sounded logical that they would have a better foundation if they could start in their political life with a strong, existing alliance. “You would have to teach me all the little things my father never bothered to learn himself and therefore couldn’t teach me.”

James had wondered for the longest time, why Fleamont had even taken the inheritance from his father and not just stepped down and given it to his brother. Before James had gone to Hogwarts, his father had not even stepped one foot into the Wizengamot when it had not been absolutely necessary. And later on Fleamont had been reluctant and as far as James knew he had played a very passive role in the government for all of his life. When James had asked, Fleamont had never been willing to talk about politics, ever deviating to his potions.

“It would be my honour”, Frank assured. “Provided Alice will agree with us coming with you. But I don’t see how that could be a problem. I don’t know how she and Lily got actually through nine month without seeing each other.”

“Because they listened to Dumbledore when he told us it would multiply the danger for Harry and Neville if the boys were in the same place.” James leaned back huffing. “I have no idea how we could ever take his advice under consideration.”

“He is very influential. And we all learned to trust him during our years in Hogwarts.”

James blinked multiple times. “That’s … Doesn’t that sound like he his brainwashing the children of a whole nation through his position as headmaster?”

Frank stared at him in open shock. “That’s not what I said.”

“No, but it is where this thought is leading to.” It was a startling thought, but it rang frighteningly true. It had been so hard for James to lose the idol he had regarded Dumbledore as in his first six years at school. “For how long is he teaching already? Something like seventy years if I’m not mistaken?”

Frank nodded. “With a few breaks in the time of the war Grindelwald had started.” He took a deep breath. “That’s … I don’t know, if you are not … Are your senses telling you that you can’t trust him?”

“It’s that I haven’t once met him since I awoke, when he wasn’t using magic to repel my and Lily’s senses.” James shook his head. “For the Sentinel-part in me he is a complete void and that’s frightening and disconcerting.”

“Why are you in the Order of the Phoenix if you can’t trust Dumbledore?”, Frank asked appalled.

“Because Lily wanted to join and I … I had decided not to tell her what I was until she would awake herself.” James shrugged uncomfortably. “So I couldn’t tell her why I didn’t want to join. And I understand why the Order is necessary. We have a terrorist running through our country and the ministry is dragging its feet. You were an Auror yourself, you have seen for yourself how restricted we are in our job.”

Frank exhaled sharply. “I never considered Dumbledore as a threat.”

“Not even when he wasn’t telling you the prophecy, that supposedly could affect your son?”, James asked incredulous. “And sticking his nose into your choices about protecting your family?”

Frank looked down and shook his head. “No. The first thing that gave me pause in all of this … was his suggestion of the Fidelius for your family. And only because of this discussion, we had a while back in the Order.”

“Not a suggestion, he has made a decision. And he isn’t excepting any protest from us. The thing is … there are a lot of people who would indeed just follow his directions.” James averted his eyes grimacing. “And I can’t even be sure if I wouldn’t be one of them, if I weren’t a Sentinel.”

“There are so many weak spots in this charm”, Frank muttered.

“And Dumbledore cursed Sirius, so I would choose the Secrete Keeper he had decided on, without outright suggesting him himself”, James reported. “When Sirius came to us, he suggested to be a decoy and that Peter should be the real Secret Keeper.”

Frank frowned. “I don’t understand the problem. How did you get from Sirius’ suggestion to the conclusion, Dumbledore had cursed him?”

“I haven’t been able to trust Peter since I awoke. I tried really hard to be his friend, to support him, but he wouldn’t…” James wrapped his arms around his chest. It still felt like a failure on his part that the friendship with Peter had not ever been what James had thought it was. “We have grown distant since graduation. I don’t know how Dumbledore hasn’t seen it.”

“I still don’t see the curse thing.”

“Sirius and Remus are the only people outside of you, who know about Lily’s and my status. I knew Sirius would never suggest Peter, because he knows why I can’t trust Peter any more”, James explained. “I found two very well hidden compulsions. One, so he would insist on Peter, and one, so he would distrust Remus, I suspect. They were new, and although we have no proof it was Dumbledore, he did visit Sirius during his shift this morning. And he is the one who brought the Fidelius up in the first place.”

Frank blew out a breath. “Okay, that’s …” He sat up and straightened his shoulders in a very deliberate move. “It’s a good thing to know that we will have to consider Dumbledore as serious opponent. We will be able to prepare for it!”

“But how do we prepare?”, James asked.

“Where are we going?”

James felt relieved, because for him this was the first thing Frank had said, that actually acknowledged that the Longbottoms would come with them. Until this point James had felt they were having a very hypothetical discussion.

“I don’t know”, he answered. “I think, I will make a spontaneous suggestion the moment before we leave.”

He had a very concrete idea based on a story in his family grimoire, but he would not disclose it, not even to Lily. He felt strongly that he should keep this knowledge to himself. This time he would not wonder about these feeling and just follow them.

“I’m a planer!” Frank shook his head and pointed his finger at James. “That’s the only time I’m accepting such nonsense!”

“You are a Gryffindor. Gryffindors aren’t planers!”, James protested smirking.

Frank laughed. “Don’t project your own failures at me and our house in general. - You will learn to be a planer, James! You’ll have to if you want to prevail in politics.”

James screwed up his face. “Yeah, I don’t see that.”

He was aware of the truth in Frank’s words. There would be a need to change a lot of things if James wanted to be successful in politics and he did not plan do be anything but exactly that. He just did not like to think about it, because so far he had not found a way to accomplish these changes without feeling utterly miserable.

“When do you want to leave?”, Frank asked.

“The day after tomorrow.”

Frank fell back in his armchair. “That’s not exactly a lot of time to prepare!”

“Dumbledore wants to cast the Fidelius in three days and Lily and I both feel we shouldn’t be there any longer when he comes back to our house”, James explained. “Today we gather our Tribe, tomorrow we will pack and I will visit Gringotts to prepare our departure, and the day after tomorrow we will leave.”

Frank frowned. “Very optimistic to think you will get just an appointment at Gringotts. Especially for something as big the preparation to relocate your family out of the country.”

“I’m a Sentinel”, James said. “Uh, I guess it weren’t accurate, when I said there were only four people, who knew that. The goblins know it, too. But there was no hiding from them. And I can be sure they wont disclose it to anyone.”

“And what has your status to do with an appointment in Gringotts?”, Frank asked with raised eyebrows.

“I’m … revered there. Their whole warrior-caste are Sentinels and Guides.” James shrugged. “They aren’t regarding me as human any more, but exclusively as a Sentinel. The first few visits there after I awoke were freaking me out big time.”

Frank hummed. “Do you think you can get me an appointment, too?”

“Of course.” James nodded. “It would be good if we could plan our future access to our vaults together, anyway. - If your talk with Alice results in the decision we are currently expecting.”

“That’s not the only thing we should plan now and together.” Frank stood up. “Stay here, I just need to get a few things. And then you are getting your first crash course in politics, James!”


	4. Chapter 4

James was anxious when he came back home late in the afternoon.

He had spent a lot more time with Frank than he had expected to do, but it had been a very productive and insightful meeting. He had known that there would be a lot to learn for him when he eventually was able to take over the family seat in the government, but he had not had any concept of how much that would be. He would not be at all opposed if Frank could be some kind of mentor to him in the years ahead.

Sometime in the early afternoon he had felt a change in Lily’s mood through their bond. It was such a chaos on feelings, that he had no idea what was happening with his wife and he had had to stomp down hard on the instinct to run to her.

In the first month after they had bonded, there had been a lot of those moments, where he had rushed home or to wherever Lily was, because of the things he had gotten through the bond. The influence of the pregnancy had not made it any easier.

They had since then learned to communicate enough through the bond, to know when there was a real emergency. So he knew that Lily had not needed him immediately. But he was worried about what could have happened with her sister that had her so unsettled.

James was not prepared for the picture that presented itself to him, when he stepped into his living room. Lily was nowhere to be seen, Sirius sat playing with Harry and their cat in the small playing area and Remus sat with another little boy in his lap reading him a story.

“When exactly did you get a child, Remus?”, James asked flabbergasted.

Remus send him a dark look without stopping in his imitation of the deep, rumbling voice of some dragon, and Sirius snorted. “That’s your nephew. Lily had him with her, when she came back from her sister.”

James looked at his friend with raised eyebrows. “Why?”

Sirius shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her yourself. She wasn’t very forthcoming with information, we don’t even know his name. - She left us alone with the boys a few minutes ago and told us to tell you she would wait in the garden for you.”

“O-kay.” James shook his head. “I’ll just search for my wife, shall I?”

He made a quick stop by his son to ruffle his hair, but was not even regarded a second glance. It was nothing new for him to be ignored by Harry in favour of Sirius and he just grinned about it. In the last weeks, Sirius was the only person Harry had accepted to be with him, when neither his mother nor his father were in the room.

It did not take long for James to find his wife in the garden behind the house. She was sitting in the late autumn sun on a patch of grass near the little sandpit they had installed for Harry. She had put her arms around her knees and was staring out over the field behind their house.

The first thing James did, was to cast a warming charm over her, because he could not say if it was the cold or her upset that made her shiver. Then he sat down behind her, so she was sitting between his legs, and wrapped is arms around her in a tight hug. Lily turned in his embrace so she could bury her face in his chest.

As her resolve broke and she started to cry, the onslaught of her emotions through the bond was like a physical punch in the gut for James. Grief and anger were the most prominent, but anguish and desperation and hurt and outright hate would flare up every now and then. James did not know what to do, other than hold his Guide and whisper nonsense in her hair. He felt the tears on his own face but ignored them.

James had no idea how long they had sat there, when Lily’s tears finally dried up. After several minutes of silence, he decided to start with a question for something he thought would be unpretentious. “What’s the name of this new little boy in our life?”

Lily fisted her hands in his robe and sobbed dryly. “She took even that from him!” Her voice was filled with pure hatred. “She … His name was Dudley. But she couldn’t even leave him this little bit. And Magic has accepted her claim the moment I left her house with him. … I wasn’t able to introduce him to Sirius and Remus because he doesn’t have a name any more!”

Her words told him a lot about the situation. The little boy, whose name was not Dudley any more, had to be magical for Magic to accept the claim to his name by his mother. And said mother had abandoned him with irredeemable finality. They would take the boy into their Tribe and probably never talk about Petunia and Vernon Dursley again.

James blew out a breath. “So, we’ll have to give him a new name.”

“I don’t know when she went from being my sister to this cold and heartless monster”, Lily muttered.

“Tell me what happened”, James asked gently. “Did she abandon her son because he is a wizard?”

Lily took a deep, stuttering breath. “She wouldn’t have abandoned him if I hadn’t come to talk to her. It would have been _bad for her image_. Instead she would have allowed Dumbledore to bound his magic. Knowing fully that it would eventually kill her child.”

James frowned. “How exactly is Dumbledore involved in this?”

He was shocked, that anyone could be so callous about the death of their own child, but not really surprised about Petunia’s cruelty. He had never known her as anything but cruel and vicious to her sister. James had never been able to understand why Lily had clung to her, but he knew this would find an end now. As terrible as the situation was, he was relieved about this part of it.

What did surprise James, was Dumbledore’s involvement. Where ever he turned to on this day, the old man seemed to skulk around.

“I – I’m not sure, actually. I think she said something about him coming by after … her son had had a bout of accidental magic.” Lily huffed. “I’ll ask when I’m going back.”

“Why, by Merlin, should you go back?” James was appalled by this suggestion and ready to protest it vehemently.

“Oh, that’s…”

Lily paused and sighed, before she began to tell him about Petunia Dursley’s insistence that her son could not just vanish, because it would damage how she was perceived by her neighbours. James was not to sure about the supposed fail safe Lily’s sister had mentioned, but he shared his Guide’s opinion, that they were not in a position to risk it.

At the end of her tale, James hummed. “That’s not a lot of time to create a fake body.”

“I have Remus searching our library. And I hope Bathilda will be able to help, too. We don’t _have_ more time”, Lily said.

“At the moment, Remus is entertaining … our nephew. - And we really need to decide on a new name for him.” It was disconcerting, that Magic would not let them use the name his mother had taken from him. But to decide on a new name in this situation would not be easy, because Magic would have to accept it. “As his parents are alive, we’ll need their blood for a full magical adoption.”

“Do you want to adopt him?”, Lily asked.

James shrugged. “I’m not sure who should adopt him, but someone in the Tribe has to. We should talk about it as soon as we are all together.”

“I’ll ask for the blood”, Lily promised. “I’m sure her husband will be there. He hasn’t let her meet me alone in the past when he knew beforehand there would be a meeting.”

James registered for the first time, that Lily had not once used her sisters name in the last minutes. He pressed a kiss in her hair without making his observation known. It was probably a reaction or even a retribution for the fact, that she had left behind her son nameless.

“I’ll come with you”, James decided. “I wont let you face them alone.”

“That’s … yes. Thank you.” Lily shuddered. “I wish I wouldn’t have to see her again. I’m so _mad_ at her.”

It was not the only thing she felt for her sister, but James understood that Lily would not want to discuss her desperation and her hurt. Her coping mechanisms in regard to her sister did not include that she talked about it and James had learned to give her all the support she needed through gestures without talking about it.

James resolved himself to be prepared for the time when the feelings about this betrayal would resurface. The next few days would be to hectic to give Lily the time to ponder about it. She would put this break down in a metaphorical chest somewhere in her heart and lock it down, so she could concentrate on their preparations.

Lily had done something similar during the preparation of her parents funeral and the consequences of her grief resurfacing had been ugly, because James had not been prepared. It had also led to her awakening, something that at least would not be a problem a second time. This time around James would be better prepared and he would keep an eye on her mood.

James could feel his wife battling down the raging emotions, while she took deep, measured breathes. He gave her a few minutes, until she felt back on an even keel through there bond and there was not escaping the occasional sob from her any more.

He eventually decided to change the topic. “I had a very interesting and information talk with Frank.”

“They are coming with us, right?”, Lily demanded to know.

James chuckled. “Yeah. Alice came home shortly before I left and if Frank hadn’t already been prepared to leave with us, I’m sure he wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on against her.”

“Good.” Lily sighed. “I would have hated to have to kidnap them all!”

James snorted but didn’t dare to contradict her. “We haven’t talked about the more distant future yet. If we wanted to leave for good or come back someday.”

“I know.” Lily looked up at him, brows furrowed. “Bathilda brought that up with me, actually. She is coming with us, too. And apparently she has known about our status since we bought this house.”

James blinked dumbfounded. “How?”

“Age and the right profession, apparently.” Lily shrugged. “We’ll have time to ask her later. - However, she said it would change the premises of what we are searching for. I wasn’t so sure about it at first, but I can see her point.”

“I don’t think I’d be able to abandon England for good”, James confessed. “I – I spent the last few hours making plans with Frank, to come back when I turn 27. Not full time. But enough to be part of the political process.”

“I thought as much.” Lily turned in his embrace, so she sat with her back against his chest, looking out over the field. She took his hands in hers and crossed their arms over her belly. “Your family is connected to this land. There are hints in the family grimoire, but it’s still hard for me to navigate in this damn book. - I think there is a reason that your family produces a Sentinel in every second generation. The Potters are the only family where this happens.”

James shook his head. “That we know of. I wouldn’t be surprised, if there are other pairs hiding. I’m not sure if I would ever want to reveal our status as Sentinel and Guide.”

“Won’t they start to ask about it in ten or twenty years?”

James shrugged. “Maybe they will just assume that Charles is the Sentinel.”

Lily shook her head. “I don’t think that’s likely. The Sentinel and Guide pairs in your family are known to be protectors of Great Britain. Any Potter Sentinel would be driven to come back here. Your grandparents brought that back into the memories of everyone during those two big wars of this century.”

James sighed, but he could not say a thing against her argument. Not even Fleamont had been able to deny what his parents had done to protect the magical population of this country, even so there had been a lot of bad things he had otherwise to say about them. And their family history was pervaded with many more of those examples.

James had started to study the history of his family long before Hogwarts through journals in the library of his parents house. He had been unsatisfied with the answers his father had provided him and so he had searched for his own answers. The journals were as complicated to navigate as Lily had mentioned the family grimoire was, but James had had a lot of years to work through them.

There was indeed a connection between his family line and this island, but James had never found any information about its origin. Several of his ancestors had alluded to an urge to come back to the British isle after long journeys, and not just the Sentinels among them. It seemed as if they knew why this urge was there, but no one had ever explained it.

When they had decided to leave in the morning, James had not even thought about it. His only thought had been the safety of his son. He had to hope, that his obligation to his family and Tribe could overcome or at the least compensate his family’s connection to this land.

James leaned his cheek against her hair. “So, you are okay with coming back someday?”

“I want to protect this country, too”, Lily whispered. “There are happening so many bad things and so many people are blind to it. I thought the Order of the Phoenix would be an opportunity to bring good changes forward.”

“With another leader maybe it could.”

Lily shook her head. “No, I don’t think so any more. - It’s such a travesty that you can’t take part in politics until you are 27! Who has come up with such a random age anyway?”

“Not so random.” James leaned his cheek against her head. “It’s three cubed, there is some arithmetical reason to it. And it wasn’t so long ago, when this limit wouldn’t have affected someone in Frank’s or my position. - For a long time this age line existed only in cases when a son or grandson would take over the seat from a still living father or grandfather. A few decades ago, I would have been able to take over the seat as soon as I my father died.”

“Why was it changed?”, Lily asked.

“No idea.” James huffed. “It was argued, that it would ensure every member of the government had reached their second magical maturity. - But I’m pretty sure there were reasons that weren’t openly discussed.”

“It has the potential to create a void. What would happen with your seats if you or Frank died? Would it lay dormant till Harry or Neville turned 27?”, Lily asked.

James nodded. “It would. But I have no idea, how much it would hinder or influence the legislative process.”

“So we have to prepare to come back in a little more than five years”, Lily concluded.

“I – No, I don’t think we should all come back.” James paused, searching for the right words. “The current situation is … We are vulnerable not only because we have two – now even three toddlers in our care, but also because we are … splintered is a good word, I think.”

Lily let her head fall against his shoulder and looked up at him with furrowed brows. “I’m not sure I can follow your thoughts.”

James sighed. “When I’m thinking about coming back here for my heritage … okay, no, let’s try this another way. When I envision our life in five or six years, I’m seeing our Tribe living together. Not necessarily in the same house, but on the same property. Maybe … something like a small village, you know? And maybe our Tribe will have grown a little bit. - It will be a protected land, where we could build and maintain wards, which could hold even an army, if needed. And whoever isn’t working from home or looking after the children, will be able to leave in the morning to go to work and come back in the evening. Frank and me included.”

Lily smiled warmly. “That sounds lovely.”

“I don’t like that we have to go, that we have to flee.” James huffed. “It feels, as if we would … give up. Not just to the dark bastard, but to the things that are happening in the ministry, too. And I don’t … to give up isn’t in my wheelhouse. - But I see the necessity. We are not prepared for a fight or to protect our Tribe. There are to many fronts where we are open to an attack.”

“And to many parties from which we have to expect an attack.”

“That, too.” James took a deep breath. “So we’ll take the time we have to prepare. And hopefully then our opponents will be the ones unprepared, because they may have forgotten, we even existed. - We’ll make sure the dark bastard will regret to even have looked in the general direction of our children.”

Lily sat up and turned around, coming to rest on her knees. “I want to be at your side, when you come back!” She looked at him earnestly. “I’m not just your wife, I’m your Guide, James. I have every right to be by your side, wherever you go. But especially if you go to war!”

James smiled reassuringly. “Of course, I would never deny you this. - But politics wasn’t what you wanted.”

Lily huffed. “There are a lot of things I didn’t want, that life just threw at me. I didn’t ask for being a witch, I didn’t ask for being a Guide. I especially didn’t ask to become a mother, while most of the time I’m not even feeling like an adult myself. And I really didn’t ask for my second maturation to happen while giving birth to my son _and_ while I still hadn’t gotten a hang of the abilities, which the awakening had brought with it! - I’m an expert at taking what life is throwing at me and making the best of it!”

James snorted. “You really are!” He cupped her cheeks with his hand and pressed a chaste kiss on her mouth.

To be reminded of her second maturation was something James liked to avoid. It had been a frightening experience, while he had sat by her head, held her hands and been unable to do anything else to help. An early pregnancy was a sure way to trigger the second magical maturation in the mother, because there was no way to stop it during childbirth. It had something to do with the magical connection between mother and child, but James had not been able to follow the magical theory when the midwife had explained it to them.

Every magical maturation came with a surge in magic. It happened for children very slowly and step for step between the age of seven and thirteen. It was this process that caused them to be especially prone to accidental magic at that time. The second magical maturation came more abruptly, happening in a matter of weeks, somewhere between the 21st and 27th birthday.

In Lily’s case it had all happened in the thirteen hours between her first labour pains and Harry’s first cry, regardless of the fact that theoretically she had not even been old enough for it. And it had been explosive.

They had been prepared for it, of course, but to talk about it in preparation of the birth and to live through it had been two very different things. Lily’s magic had been a storm that had encompassed the whole room and left it in utter chaos and destruction afterwards. Her magic had wrapped itself around James and later the new born child in a protective cocoon, but the midwife had only been safe because she had worn a special amulet for this very occasion.

The experience had deepened their bond to a degree James had not thought possible without decades of work on the bond and their relationship. And it had created for both of them a tether to their son, of which James still did not know what to think of it.

At the time, James had wondered why Magic could not just give them a break. So many things had happened, that had massively impacted their lives and their magic, and in such a short time. But now – with the knowledge that the prophecy was probably valid – he began to suspect, that Magic had prepared them for whatever task lay ahead of them.

James just hoped, all these things had not just been put on their shoulders so they would be able to prepare Harry, because that would mean nothing good for the extent of their son’s destiny. He would take on every little bit of this destiny that he could take, so it would not one day weigh down on his son.

James leaned his forehead against Lily’s with closed eyes. “You think we’ll come back to war in five years? Do you really think the dark bastard will gain so much power?”

“If left unchecked, yes.” Lily’s hands had come to rest on his thighs and he felt her fingers fist in the fabric of his trousers. “He will give the people in this country a very harsh wake up call. - But the war we will step into will be more inside the government. It’s the corruption we’ll have to fight against the most. - This whole situation with the Death Eaters and their Lord is just a symptom.”

James sighed. “We will need someone who is staying here, to keep up with current developments. Otherwise we will be utterly blind to the things that happen inside this country.”

“We are not letting anyone of the Tribe behind!”, Lily insisted.

“No.” James shook his head. “You are absolutely right. - Frank is speaking with his mother and we hope she will keep us informed. I’m still thinking about alternatives.”

“Maybe it’s time Sirius reconciled with his grandfather”, Lily suggested very earnestly.

James blew out a breath. “He wont … He hasn’t even been interested in the letters his grandfather send to my parents, after Sirius came to live with us.”

Arcturus Black was very interested in the life of his grandson. James had read the letters, that he had sent to his parents since the end of fifth year, when Sirius had come with him instead of going home to his own family. James had been surprised how much correspondence there had been between Fleamont and Arcturus and even more surprised about the content. But every time he tried to speak with Sirius about it, his friend shut him down hart.

James could understand Sirius. There was a lot of hurt and a lot of bad words and deeds between Sirius and his family. And while Sirius thought it had all happened with Arcturus blessing, James now knew the other side of the story. He did fault Arcturus for his inactions, but he also knew that the older Black was not responsible for the things that had happened to Sirius.

“Talk with him”, Lily insisted. “If you ask it of him, he will do it.”

“I’m not … Damn it, Lily!” James brought enough space between them to look at her, without releasing her face out of his hands. “I can’t use this weird dynamic between Sirius and me to pressure him into something he clearly doesn’t want!”

“He is looking at you as … some kind of leader. Because you are the Sentinel of his Tribe. And maybe because the Grim in him has recognised you as something like his Alpha.” Lily sighed. “I know you are not comfortable with it. But Sirius is _very_ comfortable with it. He has wholeheartedly accepted it. That’s what he tried to tell you earlier. He will follow you, wherever you go. That were his words.”

James remembered the exact words Sirius had used very well. _‘_ _You will protect our Tribe and I will protect you. Whatever life may throw at us, I’ll follow you.’_ It had not been the first time Sirius had spoken them; that had been shortly before they had come back to Hogwarts for their last year. It had disturbed James a lot, because he had felt a connection form between them by this words that he had not understood. He still did not understand it.

“That doesn’t mean I can just exploit it!”, James protested.

Lily shook her head. “You wouldn’t exploit it. I didn’t say you should order him to speak with his grandfather, that would be exploiting it. If nothing else, we should determine, if Arcturus Black as a politician will be a problem, when we come back. And the only one that can get reliable information on that, is Sirius.”


	5. Chapter 5

It was early evening when James found himself alone with Remus in the kitchen preparing dinner. Lily had taken their nephew and gone to Bathilda to ask for any information the older witch could give on homunculi and Sirius was still entertaining Harry.

“You are very quiet, Moony. If you have objections, we should talk abut them.” James had waited anxiously for his friend to speak up, because it was not like Remus at all to not speak his mind.

The werewolf sighed. “I don’t have objections. I actually think it’s a good idea to stand together. And to leave.”

“So, what’s on your mind then?”

Remus looked up from the onions he was cutting into rings. “Dumbledore wanted me to leave on a mission. He came by yesterday late in the evening and asked me to leave as soon as possible. If it had gone like he wanted, I would have been gone by morning.”

James blew out a breath. “He is manoeuvring the people all around me and I have no fucking clue, why. - What did he want you to do?”

“To go to Wales and Ireland, search for the packs there and speak with them on the Orders behalf. Greyback was seen with Death Eaters on a few raids and Dumbledore wants to prevent other packs to join their ranks”, Remus explained.

“He would be better served to take his influence to the ministry and stop them in there plans for these so called creature laws!” James shook his head.

No one would have to be concerned about rebelling packs, if they would just treat werewolves and other magical beings better. But even in the Auror forces Jams had not found many who shared these thoughts.

Remus hummed. “He’s told me repeatedly, that there was to great an opposition for him to stop the laws that are crafted at the moment. And … although there isn’t a law forbidding the employment of werewolves yet, I’m unable to find a job, let alone an apprenticeship. Everyone is waiting for these laws, so I see why it would be futile to speak up against them.”

“There are a lot of countries where you won’t be as restricted as here. We’ll find somewhere where you can get your mastery.”

While at school, James had not even thought about the problems his friend would have after graduation. To find out that Remus was a werewolf had changed nothing for him. It had been completely out of his awareness, that everyone else would have a problem with it. And Remus could not just keep it quiet, because he would have to take three days off every full moon.

James frowned. “And maybe even an alternative to the Wolfsbane!”

Remus shook his head, a sad smile on his face. “You are still a dreamer, James!”

“I can smell how it’s poisoning you!”, James said darkly. “I’ll not just stand by and watch while it’s killing you slowly in the course of the next thirty or whatever years. - Just because we don’t know of anything else to help doesn’t mean, that it isn’t there. There isn’t getting a lot of information over the borders of this country, in both directions I imagine.”

The other option was, to just quit with the Wolfsbane, but James tabled this kind of discussion to a time where they had not a dozen other things to plan. The Wolfsbane had just been available for up to two years. Earlier to this, Remus had been perfectly fine on the nights of the full moon, if he had spend it with his friends in their animagus forms. They could easily go back there as soon as they had found a secure place to settle down.

“Wherever we end up, I’ll be quite happy to take care of the pack … hm, Tribe and its territory”, Remus said. “I have long ago accepted that there will be no profession for me to specialise in.”

“Oh no!” James put down his own knife and crossed his arms. “There will be an apprenticeship for everyone who wants one! You, Lily, Alice – me probably. If there is something that can help prepare me for the political nightmare we’ll come back to in five years.”

“I don’t…” Remus frowned and looked down on his working hands very concentrated.

“You were studying a lot of Magical Theory and Alchemy in seventh year”, James remembered thoughtful.

“Yeah, but … Dumbledore had told me, he would ask a few friends if they would take me as an apprentice despite my … indisposition. It would have been most likely in Alchemy and I would have needed to pass a preliminary test.”

“And you didn’t like the field of study? Or the Master he found for you?”, James asked.

Remus shook his head. “No, I … I would have taken anything. There was no one who wanted to take me on.”

James took a deep breath and continued with his own cutting of vegetables. “Or maybe, he didn’t really ask anyone?”

Remus frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Dumbledore … In the last few years, I had often the feeling he was taking advantage of your … gratitude. I didn’t say anything, because … Until this morning I wasn’t even sure, if my mistrust against him was justified. I thought, maybe I was judging him to harsh, because I couldn’t get a read on him.” James shrugged. “But … Today was really eye-opening.”

“You think he said those things without ever intending to go through with them. To what end? To get my hope up and then crush it?”, Remus asked incredulous.

“To foster your gratitude about him taking on such an endeavour, although you both supposedly knew it was wasted time.” James furrowed his brows. “Or to get you exactly where you are. To convince you that there was no chance for an apprenticeship if even Dumbledore couldn’t get you one. And that the only one, who could get you work was him. So you wouldn’t protest when he send you on missions like the one he proposed yesterday, to search for packs, which aren’t very welcome of any outsider.”

“He made it possible for me to attend Hogwarts. Without him I would have never gotten my OWLs or my NEWTs! I am already indebted to him for the rest of my life.”

James looked up sharply. “Enough to follow him blindly?”

“Of course not!” Remus growled. “I wouldn’t be here if that would be the case!”

James scrutinized him for a long moment. “Good. - You are an academic, Remus. You thrive on learning new things. What would you like to learn? What would you like to make to your profession or your craft?”

“I…” Remus shook his head. “Even outside of England…”

James interrupted him earnestly. “We will find an opportunity for you. I _promise_ you this! - You are allowed to dream, my friend. And you deserve the opportunity to make those dreams reality.”

Remus took a deep breath. “I haven’t allowed myself to dream of a future, let alone a happy, fulfilling future, since the first full moon after I was bitten.”

“You have already packed all your things, right?”, James asked. “So, tomorrow you’ll stay here and mostly look after the children. You should use the time to start on those dreams! As soon as we are settled down we will find you an apprenticeship!”

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Remus had insisted on contradicting James plans about his future for the whole time they had made dinner and while they had eaten. But eventually James had been able to at least wrangle a little bit of information out of his friend. Somewhere between all his protests and his doubts, Remus had conceded, that he would like to go in a direction where he could produce something tangible.

To have two children to care for was more than doubling the work as caring for one little boy. Especially as neither Harry nor his cousin were particularly interested in the company of the other. As long as Lily was with them, they tolerated each other, but as soon as she left the room, they were forced to separate them.

James was not all that surprised about it. Harry basically did not know anything else but to be the only child in the house, who got the attention of every adult around. And their new little boy, who still needed a new name, was in a strange place, with strange people and without the only primary caregivers he had known in his life. It was amazing enough that he was accepting Lily and surprisingly Remus so easily.

James hoped the situation between the two boys would resolve itself over time, when both got used to the changed situation. For the time being, after preparing the children for the night, they had settled down their nephew in a conjured bed in the room Remus would sleep in, too, while Harry was in the cot in the living room, where James had settled down with Sirius. Later Sirius would take Harry to his room and conjure himself a bed in there, in the hope that Harry would accept his Godfather as a substitute for his parents while sleeping as readily as during the day.

Shortly after dinner Bathilda had shown up with two big tomes in her arms, and commandeered Lily and Remus in their little library and study. James was sure they would not see those three again until they had found a satisfying solution to there problem of a fake body.

“I have gotten a lot of very grave looks from you this evening.” Sirius sat across from him in a chair, feet probed up on the table, something he knew very well Lily would chastise him for. “What did I do?”

“You pledged yourself to me, is what you did.” James crossed his arms frowning. “And I have no idea how to handle this.”

Sirius blinked. “That was four years ago.”

“I know!” James huffed. “And I tried to ignore it, because I didn’t know what to do with it. But today you repeated it and … with a lot more fervour than four years ago! And I still … Why did you do this?”

“Because you are … I can’t even put a word on it.” Sirius shook his head. “It’s what I feel my meaning in this life is. To protect you, and now to protect Lily and Harry, too. I was there with you when you awoke and … there was something in me that awoke, too.”

James shook his head desperately. “I don’t like this. I don’t understand it. … You are my best friend. I don’t want you to feel obligated to … whatever, because of this pledge!”

Sirius sat up and braced his arms on his knees, one leg rocking up and down. “You misunderstand this. Or misinterpret it. It’s nothing I felt pressured to do. - I took the whole summer to think about it. I … I had a very in depth talk with your cousin about it, because as much as your father cared for me, he didn’t want to include me into this family matter.”

James frowned. “I don’t remember that Charles visited us that summer.” He was pretty sure his father had even uninvited Charles in that summer, so they woul not have to disclose to him that James had awoken. His parents had been paranoid over his status in this summer and probably rightly so.

“Oh, no. He didn’t.” Sirius grinned sheepishly. “I wrote him and we met at Gringotts. Two times actually over that summer.”

“That’s … more sneaky, than I would have expected from you”, James said. “But why?”

Sirius shrugged. “I wanted answers to things I was … perceiving and your parents weren’t very forthcoming. - I had felt very protective of you for a while. And I wondered, if it had something to do with you being a Sentinel. Your family is known to produce a lot of Sentinels.”

He paused and averted his gaze. “You cousin seemed the next best source and … he really helped me, you know. Your uncle and his family lived basically on the same property as your grandparents and Charles had a Sentinel around him for most of his childhood and youth.”

“And in contrast to my father, he was probably very interested in this part of the family lore?”, James asked.

“Yes.” Sirius nodded.

James sighed. “Dad told me once, that he felt completely restricted inside the family after my grandparents awoke. It was just a year before he started in Hogwarts and apparently my grandparents went way overboard with security and stuff, at least as far as my father was concerned. He left his home as soon as he could. - In retrospect I think, he came pretty close to leave the Tribe of my grandparents. He warned me repeatedly to be very careful how much I would let myself be influenced by my … primitive instincts, so I wouldn’t cause my own family to break apart, as my grandparents had done.”

“Yeah, the tale was a little bit different from your cousin perspective.”

“Did you tell him I had awoken?”, James asked.

As far as he knew, Charles still was not aware of it. Till his parents death it had been his father decision. After James had successfully convinced his father, that he would not tell Dumbledore about his status, Fleamont had insisted that neither would anyone else learn about it, not even family and James had not contradicted it. After his parents funeral, there had never been a good time to reconnect with his cousin, between Lily’s pregnancy, his training in the Auror academy and the part of the inheritance he could already take on.

Sirius shook his head. “No. I have never told anyone of your status. And I only told him about the change I felt prior to your awakening. Everyone knows you would someday be a Sentinel, so it was not to much a leap of logic to ask about the connections, that the Sentinels in your family had to close friends in the past.”

“And Charles gave you answers”, James concluded.

“Yes.” Sirius furrowed his brows in concentration. “He didn’t tell me a lot, mind you. I think, I told him a lot more about my personal situation. His mother was my great-aunt, I really think he tried to give me a little bit of family connection.”

“And what did he tell you about the Sentinels in our family?”

James father may have been the heir to the Potter line, but he had not been close to the rest of the family and as far as James knew, they had always accepted it in the mere nineteen years Fleamont had been patriarch. When James had been old enough to ask for his wider family, there had not been a lot of them left, who had not been married in other families, and as a child he had just accepted his father’s stand on being separated from the rest of their family.

Now Charles and James were the only ones left bearing the Potter-name. He had felt the tribal connection to his cousin for a long time, but had never known what to do with it, ha not even known what it was until this morning. James hoped Charles would be open to reconnect and to accompany them. At least there had been a positive answer to James letter from the morning and Charles had written back to expect him and his wife in the early afternoon of the next day.

“He told me you were already a Sentinel, awoken or not. Your grandparents had felt it in the very moment you had been born, apparently.” Sirius laughed, when he saw James screwing up his face.

“I don’t know how I feel about the prospect of sensing my grandchild being born!”

Sirius took a long moment, to get his laughing fit back under control. “Luckily you have a lot of years ahead of you before that will happen! - Okay, so, historically Sentinels and Guides are protectors of a society and the land they are calling their own. But they’re not doing it alone, they gather people around themselves, who stand with them as protectors. Something like … Charles used the word Shieldbrothers, I think. And as they’re Sentinel or Guide from the very beginning, they’re not only gathering those people when they have awoken, but from the beginning of their life, too.”

Sirius took a deep breath. “It has something to with compatibility in various aspects, but I didn’t really pay attention to this part. I was more interested in what was happening, than why it was happening.” He shrugged, when James snorted. “Whatever. I … It was your destiny to be a Sentinel. And I accepted that it would be my destiny, to be one of your … ugh, Shieldbrothers. I really don’t like this word. It’s so … antique.”

“We’ll come up with a new one”, James assured. He was beginning to understand the situation a little bit better, even though he still was not especially happy about it.

“Right.” Sirius looked at him sceptical. “This whole Shieldbrothers and pledged-to-protect-you-thing doesn’t change anything about our friendship. I could have easily chosen to ignore it and your magic would have retreated from me eventually, letting me be your best friend and finding someone else who would otherwise stand beside your. - But how could I trust anyone else to protect you as I would do it?”

“Okay.” James took a deep breath. “I’m still not … I understand a little better now, but I still don’t really like it.”

“There will be others in the future, you know.” Sirius leg stilled for the first time since they had started this whole conversation and the earnestness on his face made James shiver a little bit. “Especially if the situation will be as grievous as we fear, when we come back. - Let’s hope we are all just in such a bad place at the moment that everything else his overshadowed by it, too, and in reality it isn’t as dark as it seems.”

“That brings me to a topic I would really love to skip, but…” James shrugged. “You know.”

“I’m not sure, I do”, Sirius answered frowning.

“The whole Tribe is leaving England. And the current plan is, that at least Frank and I will return temporary to plunge into politics as soon as I turn 27”, James said.

Sirius nodded. “Yes, I got that already.”

“So, we need someone here in England to keep us up to date. And not only with the things that are made public, but with the things that are happing behind the scene as well.” James wet his lips. “Frank is talking with mother about it. But … that wont be enough.”

It took a moment for Sirius to catch on. “No! You can’t … James!” He jumped out of his chair and began pacing up and down the whole length of the room. “No one in my family would want to be any help to us!”

James gaze drifted to Harry, even so he had placed the silencing ward around the cot himself and knew his son would not be disturbed by their discussion. “Your grandfather isn’t the same kind of person as your parents. Hasn’t he even very publicly reprimanded your mother just last year for spouting this nonsense about Mugglebornes stealing magic and as such being responsible for the birth of Squibs?”

“Pure calculation, I’m sure”, Sirius replied, shaking his head.

“You are still his heir, Sirius. He has never denounced you!”, James tried to argue.

Sirius huffed. “Because I’m the only possible heir there is since Reggi got himself killed.”

James shook his head, but at least Sirius had not left the room yet. “Before Regulus died, your grandfather could have easily made him his heir. And now the youngest Malfoy could be a possible heir. But he hasn’t changed it.”

“So what?” Sirius crossed his arms.

James sighed and decided for another approach. “He wrote you every month after you came to live with us. You haven’t read even one of those letters.”

“And he stopped the moment I graduated!”, Sirius reminded.

“That was my fault actually”, James confessed ill at ease. “I … I wrote him and told him you hadn’t read even one of his letters. I told him I would inform him if you changed your mind about contact with him and that you maybe just needed a little bit time. He wrote me a short note and stopped writing you.”

He took a deep breath. “And my parents had a very thorough correspondence with him since the day you came to live with us, as far as I can tell. I found all the letters your grandfather had send my parents, when I was sorting their belongings. I read those because I needed to know, if there was any business with the house of Black I needed to know about. But it was all about you. - As far as I can tell, my parents kept him informed about every little detail of your life, because he was genuinely interested in you as a person.”

James paused, but Sirius was just looking at him with an open mouth. “I wrote him another letter after this. I apologized to him, that I wouldn’t be able to continue those detailed reports, because my loyalty was to you. But I promised to talk to you, so maybe you would get back into contact with him. - You have nearly made me break my promises, Sirius. Every time I tried to talk to you about it, you either deflected or you found a reason to leave.”

“If he was so interested in me, he should have found a way to keep me out of that house, instead of letting me find my own way out, don’t you think?”, Sirius asked agitated.

“Did you ever tell him what your parents did?”

“It was obvious. I’m sure he knew exactly what was happening!”, Sirius spat.

James sighed. “I didn’t see it and a saw you come back to Hogwarts with injuries after every single one of our breaks. - How often did your grandfather see you? And how often were you injured at this time?”

Sirius shook his head, but did not say anything.

“We have both seen domestic violence cases in this last year since we became Trainee-Aurors. You have seen how not obvious it is often times, even if the victim thinks it is.” James stood up and reached for his friend, but Sirius backed away.

“That’s hardly the same.”

James hummed. “If you say so.” He went to a shelf, where he had deposited two stacks of letters earlier in the evening. “Those are all the letters your grandfather send to us. The ones for you and the ones for my parents.”

“You are plenty prepared for a topic you didn’t want to bring up!”, Sirius said darkly.

James shook his head, smirking. “I said, I would love to skip it, not that I hadn’t planed to bring it up. - But it’s the first time I’m bringing your grandfather up not because I think you should give him a chance but for other reasons. Even if I still think you should. And maybe you should start with reading these letters.”

“You really think he would be ready to give us information?”, Sirius asked frowning.

“I think he would be really happy to reconnect with you. And he would do a lot to keep in contact with you.” James crossed his arms and sat back down. “I don’t want to pressure you. And I don’t want to use his affection for you in this way. - You have a lot of very big and important memories of your grandparents from your childhood before Hogwarts. I would like for you to get a resemblance of this connection back. And right now it may be the last chance you get for this. - And on the other hand, he could be a good ally. Or an adversary we would have to take very serious. It would be better if we knew as soon as possible what of those he will be.”

Sirius drooped down on the sofa beside James. “My last chance?”

“Not every wizard lives to be 150 years old or more. Your grandfather could still have a lot of decades ahead of him, but he lost a lot and that often doesn’t lead to a long life. And he could very well become a target of the dark bastard if the rest of your family is following him but Arcturus is not.” James shrugged.

“I…” Sirius stared at the letters. “I never wanted to open myself up for … I have once been rejected by my family. I don’t need this a second time!”

“But you can’t be sure you would be rejected”, James said quietly. “Why don’t you start with these letters? We can read them together. - Or I can read them aloud. And afterwards there is enough time for you to decide what you want to do.”

Sirius sighed deeply.

James pulled his friend in a one armed hug. “I won’t ask you to go to him. - All I ask is, that you actually think about it, after you see the information you decided to ignore for the last five years.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't planed to write sex in this stroy, but here it is. And it wasn't even as hard as it woulf have been in German.
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

Lily woke up exactly at half past six, although she had not gone to bed until half past two in the night. After the boys had been asleep she had spent long hours with Remus and Bathilda to prepare the homunculus, that would take the place of the body of her nephew. The creation would not take long, but it was complicated. Their homunculus would probably never fool a magican, but it would suffice for the muggle authorities.

Knowing they would have to get up soon, Lily turned to her sight and pressed her body against her Sentinel, who was on the brink of waking up himself, slipping one leg up over his, until she could feel his half hard cock pressing through his sleeping pants against her knee. In her mind it was a travesty that they did not sleep naked any more, but they had to make concession for the fact that they had a toddler in the house.

She pressed soft, small kisses all over his shoulder and let her fingers dance over his chest, only occasionally rubbing teasingly over his erect nipples. It had been weeks since one of them had been able to wake the other in this way, weeks since they had enjoyed early morning sex right after waking up, because their son had decided he could not sleep in another room than his parents did any more.

Later, much much later, Lily would need to find something to thank Sirius for sleeping in Harry’s room with him.

She felt James awake slowly, mentally through their bond and physically when his breathing pattern changed and his cock grew harder against her knee. Lily pressed her crotch against his hip. Before they had bonded, she had not felt this horny in the morning right after waking up and she was convinced it was all his fault.

When they both slept, their bond was wide open, letting them share everything. Lily could not remember a day where she had awoken beside James and he had not been aroused. Since they had bonded, she was getting the full onslaught of these emotions and until late into her pregnancy they had spent a lot of time each morning to enjoy each other.

James grabbed her by her hips when he came fully awake, and pulled her on top of him. She came to rest sitting on him with her crotch pressed against his, only the thin material of her panties and his sleeping pants between her pussy and his cock.

Lily laughed and rested her hands on his shoulders to stabilise herself. “Good morning, my love.”

James grinned. “Yeah, to wake up like this is a really good morning!”

He pushed one hand under her loose t-shirt up her back, and angled with the other for his wand. Without pause he mutter the teeth cleaning charm for both of them and then vanished his pants and Lily’s panties.

“It’s times like these that I really love magic!”, she muttered before she kissed him. Lily rubbed her wet pussy against his cock very slowly and deliberate, eliciting a moan from him. He pulled her down, one hand pressing down between her shoulders and the other tangling in her hair.

Lily got lost in the kisses, the feeling of his hands exploring her and their bodies rubbing against each other. When he let go of her mouth, she felt dazed and breathless.

“Get rid of this t-shirt for me, babe”, James muttered against her lips.

Lily smirked and took her time sitting up. James loved to watch her strip out of a top she had to pull over her head; even fully clothed she could drive her husband to distraction only by stretching her arms over her head. She watched his face intently, as she grabbed the hem of her t-shirt and began to very, very slowly pull it up.

James grabbed her hips with both hands and ground his crotch against her, his eyes never leaving the ever rising hem of the cloth. She lost sight of him, when she pulled the t-shirt over her face, but she knew his eyes would be banned on the movement of her chest, the stretching of her shoulders that would pull up her tits as well, and so she continued to take her time.

“Don’t tease me!”, James said breathless, when she let the t-shirt drop to the side and cupped a breast in each hand, making a show out of pleasuring herself. “We don’t have time for you to tease me!”

“I’m not teasing, I’m doing exactly what you asked for!”

James wet his lips. “Ride me, then. I want to feel your pussy stretch around me!”

She didn’t take any time to follow his wish, reaching for his cock, so she could let it slide right into her. Lily looked up at him and they never lost eye contact, while she rode him with slow but firm thrust, digging her nails in his chest, while his hands kneaded her ass cheeks.

His arousal was amplifying her own through the bond and she fed it right back to him. It was such a magnificent feeling to feel her Sentinel inside her with every of her senses, physically, magically and emotionally. This deep connection was one thing she would never regret about being a Guide.

It did not take a lot for them both to reach orgasm nearly at the same time; it had become so easy to get there together after they had bonded. And every orgasm had become so much more intense when they left the bond open, sharing not only their physical but their emotional pleasure as well.

“A really, really good morning”, James muttered, when they both had come down from the rush of emotions. He nuzzled his nose in her hair and took a deep breath.

Lily chuckled and snuggled her face in the hollow between his neck and his shoulder. “Is it very terrible that I miss the time where we weren’t parents?”

“No.” James sighed. “I miss those times too, sometimes. I would be really surprised if not every parent sometimes missed it. Even those who fully planed for their children. - When Harry is old enough to understand the feeling he would get from a ward on our door, we’ll get a little bit of privacy back.”

“Do you…” Lily furrowed her brows. They had never talked about how they envisioned their family in the future, both of them feeling to young to talk about children. “Do you want him to stay our only child?”

“No.” James shook his head slightly. “I just think it should be a few years till the next child, with all the things that are happening. - I often wished for siblings, when I was growing up. Even so I knew it was futile. As old as my parents were, my own existence was a wonder. … Do you want more children?”

“I want Harry to have siblings”, Lily answered, without any need to think about it. “But you’re right, to wait a while is probably the reasonable thing to do. - If those darn contraceptions are working this time.”

They both used contraception potions that should be fail proof if only one of them used them, let alone both of them. They had used fairly similar potions before Harry had come along, but had felt better about changing them after the old ones had both failed. Lily checked every batch and they took the next dose a week earlier than was strictly necessary, just to be sure.

She still was wary of it sometimes. She did not want to experience a second unplanned pregnancy. As much as she had come to love being pregnant with Harry, it had been much more hectic and stressful than she had wished those month to be, not at least because they had not been prepared for anything of it. The next time around she wanted to be able to enjoy every moment of it.

“I … am not sure, if there was anything wrong with our contraception”, James said warily.

“We have the evidence sleeping in the next room!”, Lily reminded him.

James hesitated for a long moment. “Frank tried to get more information about the prophecy and he could confirm that there indeed is a prophecy. We can’t be sure if it is about one of our sons, but … neither Neville nor Harry were planed.”

“You really believe in this crap?”, Lily asked incredulously.

“I do think we can’t just dismiss it.” She felt James nod against her head. “Something decided, before we both were even born, that you would be my Guide. We were predestined for a shared life. How can I deny that there exists something like fate or destiny if I live the proof of it?”

Lily wanted to sit up, but James arms around her held her stubbornly in place. “Our son is fifteen month old! There is no way he could stand against anyone!” And there was no way in hell she would let happen anything like that. No one with the intent to harm would get near her child.

James sighed. “Of course not. Only because the prophecy exists now, doesn’t mean it has to come into play now. It could easily be about something happening in twenty or thirty years. And there is nothing to say it has to come into play at all. I fully intend to get rid of the dark bastard one way or another long before Harry is old enough to even think about a battle of his own. - That still doesn’t mean, that his conception wasn’t forced by the same forces that created this prophecy.”

“First you say you believe in this shit and than you say you want to break it. You’ll have to decide for one!”, Lily said aggravated. She tried again to get up only to be blocked by his embrace. “Would you let me sit up already?”

“Nope, you are staying exactly where you are, until I won’t have to fear you throwing pillows at me, or something else.” She could feel James amusement and it was infuriating. “Prophecies are not set into stone, love. They can be prevented. It’s probably what the dark bastard is trying to do at the moment, but with only knowing part of it, that’s really risky for him.”

Lily huffed, but gave up the struggling against her husbands embrace. “We know not even a word of the damn prophecy! How do you think we could prevent it? If it even is valid, that is.”

“We’ll protect and in the worst case prepare Harry and Neville and meanwhile we can try to get rid of the dark bastard.” James shrugged. “And maybe we will find a way to get to the prophecy.”

Lily frowned. “There is something else you are not saying.”

“Right.” James took a deep breath. “I had something of an epiphany in the evening, when I was laying in bed all _alone_.”

Lily poked him in his side, as hard as she could, which wasn’t overly much with her arms mostly trapped between their bodies. “I had work to do. You could have helped!”

“I’m sure I would have been more of a hindrance”, James replied amused. But then he got very sincere. “I think, Dumbledore is trying to help the … prerequisition of the prophecy along, so it’ll have to be met.”

Lily blew out a breath. “We came to the conclusion yesterday, that he is trying to set us up for betrayal, right?”

“If … okay, so, there has to be some part of it that could describe Harry as well as Neville. As it doesn’t seem clear who it could mean, there has to be a deciding factor that will come into play through other circumstances. Maybe something the dark bastard doesn’t know, but Dumbledore does. And Dumbledore could be trying to create a situation, where those circumstances are met.”

“By exposing us and the Longbottoms to the dark bastard?”, Lily asked incredulous.

“Maybe he thinks the dark bastard has to choose his future opponent”, James suggested. “Who knows what he has interpreted into this prophecy.”

Lily shook her head. “This is all just speculation!”

“Sure it is. - Frank and I speculated yesterday about other things concerning Dumbledore, that aren’t anything less horrific. Did it ever occur to you, that he is in a prime position to manipulate every single child in this country to his liking?”

“That…” Lily paused. “That _is_ horrific.”

James took a deep breath. “And we can even still go a little bit further with our speculation. You asked me yesterday, if Frank’s or my death would create a void with our seats in the Wizengamot. I thought about it for a long time and I got to think about, that maybe he is trying to create such a thing for a long time already.”

“How so?”

He shrugged. “My father disinterest in his position in the Wizengamot did already create a void. And Dumbledore was already a teacher when my father went to Hogwarts. - And now I’m utterly unprepared for this position, because my father was neither willing nor able to prepare me. And I would have probably been easy to manipulate by him if I hadn’t already awoken.”

“That would imply, that he is playing a very long game!” Lily couldn’t even begin to contemplate what James was trying to say. If there was even a little bit of truth in those speculations, it would make Dumbledore to a much greater threat than Voldemort, not only for their family and Tribe, but for their whole country, too.

“Which doesn’t mean it’s not possible”, James said darkly. “While I read those letters to Sirius yesterday, I got the impression, that Dumbledore kept Sirius away from his grandfather. He mentioned several times his regret that Sirius couldn’t make it to meetings in Hogsmeade.”

Lily frowned confused. “I can’t remember that Sirius ever wanted to meet his grandfather in the village.”

James snorted. “He can’t remember that either and that’s the point. - If Arcturus died now, after Sirius had no contact to him for years, all the connections in politics the Blacks have build for decades if not centuries could be destroyed.”

“That’s a very dark picture you are drawing there”, Lily said cautiously. “And still only speculation. It does seem logical at the moment, but maybe we are all just paranoid at the moment.”

“Sirius said something similar yesterday.” James sighed. “For the moment it doesn’t really matter what Dumbledore is planing, as long as we can get out of England before he learns of our plans and then would try to stop us. - But I think, we’ll have to find some way to get an insight into his plans. I don’t want to be blindsided by him. I…” There was hot anger boiling up in James. “I already feel we let him lead us around in the beginning of the year.”

“Bathilda has known him since he was a child”, Lily said thoughtful.

“I heard mention of it.” He carded his fingers through her hair softly.

“We should ask her. Maybe she can help us find the right connections.” Lily turned her head, till she could look up at James. “How was your talk with Sirius?”

James sighed. “Exhausting, but surprisingly successful. - I read all of his grandfathers letters to him, as I said. Sirius is still very cautious, but he will visit Arcturus today. I hope the old man won’t let me down.”

“Is Sirius going alone?” That did not seem like a good idea with all the hurt feelings about his family. For one Lily did not want to let her friend alone in such a situation. And on the other hand she could just see the catastrophe Sirius could create if he lost his temper.

“He is insisting on it”, James answered. “I did suggest he’d wait until I came back from Gringotts, but he wants to get it over with as soon as possible. And we both feel you shouldn’t stay here alone, just in case … of an attack, so he isn’t asking Remus to accompany him. Besides, you’ll need help if you want to handle both boys and prepare the packing.”

Lily sighed deeply. Harry alone was a hand full often times, but the last evening had been a lot more strenuous with two boy. She could not imagine how any parent could survive twins after only half a day in such similar circumstances.

“I don’t even want to think about packing”, Lily said dejectedly. “When we bought this house, I thought we would raise our children here.”

“Me too”, James muttered. He kissed the top of her head. “We will find another place we’ll fall in love with. It will be a better place with all of our Tribe around us.”

Lily took a deep breath and tried to get rid of her resentment for this idea. She loved this house, had loved it from the first moment she had set a foot in it. Deep down she hated the whole idea of uprooting her little family, although she knew it was the only possibility for them. It had been her own idea, and yet she really hated it, now that they had to realise it.

She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “But it’s probably a good thing, that this whole situation is … finally coming to an end.”

James fingers in her hair froze. “What do you mean?”

“Me being stuck here.” Lily shrugged. “Yesterday … I got to comfortable here. To accustomed to not being able to leave. - I needed a lot of time to convince myself to actually leave the wards, when I went to my sister yesterday.”

James shuddered. “I’m sorry.”

Lily frowned and turned her head so, that she could look up to his face. “It’s not your fault!”

“You were basically a prisoner here because I just went with Dumbledore’s suggestion.”

“We both made this decision”, Lily remembered.

“Did we?” James met her gaze with furrowed brows. “Did we sit down and discuss it? Didn’t we just say yes and never even thought about an alternative in the beginning? - And the one time you asked about leaving the country, I shot you down without thinking about it.”

Lily sighed. She had not expected James to be so agitated about her circumstances of the last few month, but then they had never talked about it before. “This is not your fault, love. - I never once protested about being cooped up in this house. I didn’t even suspect about this being a problem until I stood in front of the wards and just couldn’t take this last step.”

James tightened his arms around her. “You should have never been in this situation!”

“None of us should.” Lily shrugged. “But I’ll get over it. I got over it yesterday, as hard as it was. - And it wasn’t the hardest thing of the day, so I’m hopeful it is not a problem that will resurface.”

She would just hold onto that thought and hopefully it wouldn’t be as hard to leave the security of the wards the next time she had to take this step.

“What’s the plan for today?”, Lily asked, partly to distract both of them from this topic. “You are going to the bank right after breakfast, right?”

James nodded. “I’m meeting with our account manager first and later Frank will join me. Sirius is going to Arcturus. Sometime in the afternoon Charles and his wife are arriving and I hope they’ll be ready to join us. I should be back from Gringotts in the afternoon and I’ll bring dimensional trunks with me. So you should prepare a list where you want to have packed which items. We should to be able to pack all the furniture we want to take with us.”

Lily swallowed hard. “Are we selling this house?”

“We don’t have to sell it.” James hesitated. “I would like to keep it. We can arrange with Gringotts, that someone will look after the house and the property.”

“That would be nice”, Lily agreed. “When it’s safe to bring our children back, we could make it to a holiday home.”

“That’s settled then. - How far did you get with the homunculus last night?”, James asked.

“Bathilda will organize the things we don’t already have for its creation”, Lily related. “And we’ll put it together tomorrow morning. It should keep its form for up to three month, but I think we should put a light compulsion curse on it, so the muggle authorities will process the death of Dudley Dursley quickly, so he can be cremated as soon as possible.”

“And with the cremation all evidence of our manipulations will be gone”, James concluded.

“Yes. I think … There shouldn’t be any connection between the boy we took into our Tribe yesterday, and the son of my sister. Not only for his sake, but also so no one can try to use this against us”, Lily said. “I’m pretty sure it’s not fully legal, what we are doing.”

James snorted. “There was a time I wouldn’t have thought it possible for you to break the law so easily.”

Lily swallowed hard. “To break the law isn’t the darkest thing I’m planing to do tomorrow. - I don’t think it would be a good idea to let my sister and her husband remember the exchange of their child against a fake body. The only way we can be sure they won’t hold it against us some day will be if they never remember it.”

James inhaled sharply. “You were so reluctant to even train these abilities!”

“I’m still reluctant”, Lily muttered. “Just to think about it makes me ill. It’s such a violation. … But we have to think about the security of this little boy. They wanted to kill him. In my mind, they gave up any right of privacy they ever had!”

“Are you sure you can do it without being detected?”

Lily shrugged. “How would they know what happened? They can’t detect magic, they won’t be able to feel the intrusion. - The only thing I have to be cautious about are my sister’s fail safes.”

“And we don’t know what they are”, James muttered darkly.

“I’ll just have to take care that my sister won’t have any notable breaks in her memories.” Lily sighed deeply. “I don’t think it will be a problem. The most part of my visit can stay as it is. She didn’t allow me to take him with me and threatened me with exposing our world. I left, determined to find another way and two days later the child was dead, before I could do anything about his situation.”

“And at what time during our visit do you want to do this?”, James asked.

Lily frowned. She had thought about the logistics already without finding a solution for this problem. She would need a few minutes and an opportunity to concentrate, and this last part would not be easy to come by.

“It’s a good thing I’ll come with you, then.” James sighed and shook his head. “It won’t be any problem to engage Vernon in a discussion for however long you need. He is gullible that way.”

Lily snorted. “You are the only person I know who would call it a discussion to bait him into spouting his xenophobic bullshit.”

James sighed theatrically. “Those are the sacrifices I make for you!”

Lily laughed but poked him lightly.

James kissed her forehead and she could feel his smugness about distracting her. “So, you are spending the whole day with Remus?”

“Yes. And hopefully he isn’t as broody as yesterday!”

“Do me a favour and try to get out of Remus what he would like to apprentice in. He’s convinced he’ll spent his life caring for the Tribe, because he won’t find an apprenticeship either way. I’m set out to proof him wrong!”

“As you should.” Lily frowned. “He has such a brilliant head! - I have heard there are even magical universities outside of England. That’s something to keep in mind for him, too!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Master Arzunk is my own and I like him a lot. I didn't invent him for this story, but the other one isn't published anywhere.
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

James had sat down in the visitors chair in the office he had been let into when he had arrived at the bank, and waited patiently. No other human would have been left alone in an office. He knew that full well and he also knew, that the goblins knew of his knowledge as well. It was a little bit of a mind game. They wanted to remind him that they trusted him as a Sentinel more than any other human. For them, it must have seemed as if he weren’t trusting them a lot with the secrecy in his letter from the day before.

They did not let him wait long. The Potters account manager’s name was Arzunk and as far as James knew, the goblin had already served his grandfather as such. Fleamont Potter had not had a lot of good things to say about any goblin, let alone their account manger, but James had understood after his awakening, that Fleamont had been eminently jealous of the respect his own father had been shown in the bank only because he had been a Sentinel.

Arzunk took his seat behind the desk and looked at James gravely. “I was very surprised that you used your standing with us to demand a meeting on such short notice, Lord Potter. And not only for you but for Lord Longbottom, as well.”

James smiled ruefully. “What would you do to protect your children, Master Arzunk?”

He did not correct the goblin in addressing him as Lord, even if he would not hold this title for another five and a half years. He had accepted month ago that the goblins did not care for the laws of the humans in this aspect. For them he had become Lord Potter with the death of his father.

“I’m not blessed yet with such”, Arzunk answered frowning. “But I assume there wouldn’t be much I wouldn’t do.”

James inclined his head. “I find myself forgetting every one of the moral standards I would like to hold up under normal circumstances in the face of an imminent danger to my son. And to my Tribe.”

“I see.” Arzunk leaned back in his chair. “Would you elaborate what that danger is?”

In the last night, James had thought long and hard about the question how much of their situation he wanted and could disclose to the goblins. The thing was, that he did trust them a lot. Much more than most humans, as disturbing a thought as that was. So he took a deep breath and spilled it all out, from Dumbledore’s first warning in the beginning of the year to the events of the last day.

“This are indeed disturbing news.” Arzunk had folded his hand on top of the desk and pursed his lips. “How much do you know of this prophecy?”

“Not much, as I said”, James answered. “Dumbledore wouldn’t share it with us. But we did get confirmation about a recording of the time Dumbledore said he witnessed it.”

Arzunk hummed. “You said Dumbledore warned you and the Longbottoms. What have your sons in common?”

James furrowed his brows. “Their mothers are really close friends. And they were born very close together. Harry in the early morning of the 31st of July last year, and Neville in the evening before that, on the 30th. They’re not even separated by eight hours in age.”

“That could be helpful.” Arzunk took a quill and made a quick note.

“Helpful?”, James asked.

Arzunk cocked his head. “Your Hall of Prophecies is not the only place, where such are recorded. The date of when the prophecy was spoken wouldn’t help in the records I can access, but this information just might. To know even a few words would be even more helpful, though.”

“And you’ll just look for it?” James blinked surprised.

“I’ll take a small fee for it of course.” Arzunk smirked. “It is the believe of my kind, that all affected by such a prophecy should be aware of it, or none.”

James frowned. “Will you send it to the dark bastard, too?”

“If Voldemort ever tries to educate himself fully about it, I would.” Arzunk nodded. “You don’t need to use any abbreviation of his name in the confines of our bank. This ridiculous taboo doesn’t work inside of Gringotts. And by all rights, it shouldn’t even work in the territory of your country. It’s a testimony of the corruption inside your government that it does.”

James sighed. “Yes, I know. It shouldn’t work outside of England, right?”

“Yes. And I don’t think he even tried such nonsense. He wouldn’t want international recognition, I think. The isolation from the rest of the world, that your people are preferring, should suit him just fine.” Arzunk regarded him with an inquiring look. “You clearly didn’t come here to ask for a search of this prophecy.”

James grinned. “How should I, as I didn’t even know it was possible? - No, I have made plans with my Tribe to leave England. We don’t want to risk an attack and with Dumbledore’s manoeuvring, we feel the best way to prevent it, is to leave.”

“Where will you go?”, Arzunk ask.

“I have an idea, but…” James hesitated.

Arzunk nodded. “You don’t want to disclose it yet, I understand.”

“We would like to leave tomorrow, because Dumbledore plans to come back and cast the Fidelius on my house the day after that. We don’t need him trying to hold us back”, James continued.

“Are you abandoning England?” Arzunk leaned forward, bracing his arms on the desk. “Is the Sentinel in you feeling the danger so imminently from inside your folk, that you’re abandoning your home?”

Something in the goblins tone let James come to a halt. “What would it mean, if I would?”

Arzunk took a deep breath. “The Horde would know to prepare for war. For a big and very ugly war. - For a Sentinel to abandon the country he was born to, because they feel their Tribe endangered, has always been a very dark omen.”

James shook his head slowly, not sure what to think about this revelation. “I do plan to come back. At the moment, there isn’t much I can do inside this country and to protect my Tribe is more important than anything else. But as soon as I turn 27, Frank Longbottom and I will come back and hopefully we’ll be able to bring change.”

Arzunk nodded. “Good. - You do know of course, that your path into politics will be a hard one. Your father didn’t do your family any favour in the way he handled his responsibilities. Or didn’t handle them.”

James flinched. “Yes, I’m aware. He had never any interests in politics. I often wondered, why it wasn’t my uncle who inherited the title.”

“Because your cousin wasn’t born a Sentinel, but you were”, Arzunk said. “It wouldn’t have been an easy task to make you the heir of your uncle over your cousin.”

“Oh.” James bit on his lip.

That did explain a few things about his fathers behaviour. His resentment and unwillingness to accept his responsibilities had seemed extreme, even as James had still been a child. But if Fleamont had never wanted it and just been stuck with it because of his son, it was a wonder his father had not started to resent him.

James sighed. “I had hoped my cousin would be amendable to accompany my Tribe, to be part of my Tribe. This information does not bode well for my wish.”

Arzunk sighed. “I see your father hasn’t just neglected his duty to your family in general, but to you in particular, too. You don’t know a lot about your family and you haven’t educated yourself much since his death.”

James scowled. “You do remember, that my parents died only one and half years ago, right? And I had to deal with a pregnant, basically newly awoken Guide, who got her second maturation forced on her during childbirth. My focus was on helping my wife train her magic.”

“There was a time, where your folk married their young women of right out of school to assure such a forced maturation”, Arzunk said thoughtfully.

“Yes, and it took them not even five years to outlaw this practice”, James replied. “Because they learned fairly quickly, why most of these poor woman ended up widowed on the very day their child was born. This magic isn’t benevolent at all.”

James had been welcomed by his wife’s magic. Though the midwife had been regarded as an intruder, but not as a threat, as no ward could have protected her otherwise. He could clearly see, how the men who had been forced on those women would be killed in the backlash of the magical maturation. And as proximity between the spouses did not seem to matter, this practice had been very hastily forbidden; not to protect those poor women, but to protect the men who thought it a good idea to marry basically a child.

“Do you know why it even came up?”, Arzunk ask.

James drew his brows together, confused by the question “No. I found this idea aberrant from the start when I learned about it in history, I really didn’t want to think abut why it came up.”

“It was speculated by a few magical theorists, that a child born during the magical maturation of their mother, would be especially magically powerful themselves”, Arzunk explained. “It was never proven of course, but neither was it ever refuted.”

Huffing, James let himself fall back in his chair. “I’m not sure I want to take in any more of those little details, that are hinting in the direction, that my son has a big and harsh destiny ahead of him.”

“No father would want to recognise that, I imagine.” Arzunk regarded him with long, hard look. “But maybe you should not judge this prophecy as foretelling of something, that has to happen, but as a warning. Lady Magic has prepared your son, but so she has prepared you and your Guide.”

“Yes, we are aware”, James said darkly. “And we are intending to take care of … Voldemort. Even if by all rights the ministry should take care of it. - You said he wouldn’t want international recognition. Why?”

“Ah.” Arzunk showed a very toothy grin. “I already thought you would never ask. - His crimes are violating international law that Britain as a member of the ICW has sworn to uphold. But as long as no one outside of England knows of those crimes, there is no one who could pressure your ministry to react. All the people he his paying in your government and even those who are bearing his mark, would be utterly useless to him, if just the ICW knew.”

James looked at him sceptical. “And why haven’t you told the ICW of Voldemorts crimes?”

“Because I’m not human.” Arzunk cocked his head snarling. “No magical being was ever welcome in the ICW. It’s the International Confederation of _Wizards_ , I believe even the inclusion of witches is fairly new. - Other than that, as a nation it is forbidden to us by the treaties that govern our businesses with humans, to discuss the domestic politics of any country with other countries.”

James sighed. “I see. - But I or anyone in my Tribe can talk with someone from the ICW as soon as we have left England.”

“Exactly.” Arzunk grinned broadly. “I’m sure that will keep him out of your affairs for a long time. - And the turmoil of having to deal with possible sanctions of the ICW may create a better opening for you and Lord Longbottom, even five years down the road.”

“Probably not if they learned that Frank or I had informed the ICW”, James mused. “But I’m sure we can trust in our Tribe and someone will inform the ICW, if we mention this very problem.”

“I am glad to see that there is a basis, small as it may be, to grow a political head on your shoulders, Lord Potter”, Arzunk said satisfied.

James huffed. “Yes, rub my misgivings in, would you?”

Arzunk erupted in a barking laugh. “You are young and uneducated and still fairly naive, Lord Potter. But you have five more years to educate yourself, to grow, to learn. To be taught. - We have once more deviated from the reason that brought you in my office today.”

“Right.” James sighed. “There are three points I hoped you could help me with. Me and everyone else in my Tribe will need the means to get to our gold from … wherever we end up. The second point is, that I would like to arrange the initial transportation through Gringotts, so Dumbledore won’t be able to track us. And at last, Lily and I don’t want to sell hour house, so I would like to arrange someone who will look after the property.”

“And information from inside this country while you are gone?”, Arzunk asked.

James raised his brows. “Didn’t you just tell me, that you are forbidden to share such information?”

“With foreigners to your country, yes. But you’ll still be a British citizen, even if you are living elsewhere”, Arzunk replied all to innocently.

“Okay.” James snorted. “I’ll just take it. Yes, we’ll be happy about any information we can get.”

Arzunk hummed and there evolved a long silence between them, while the goblin inspected him with a look as if he tried to judge James. For what, the Sentinel had no idea.

“I have a proposition”, Arzunk said finally. “A bargain, if you want.”

James opened his mouth and closed it again in surprise. “I – What do you propose?”

“Humans have evolved greatly in the last few centuries and their sheer number makes them the dominant species on Earth. There hasn’t been an advocate for magical beings in the human governments for a very long time. And for the most part, that was barely a problem. But as things are now … Magical beings won’t just accept to be subjugated, as human governments all over the world a starting to do.”

“I’m not sure I can follow”, James said hesitatingly, even if he thought to have a good inclination where this was going.

“I think you do.” Arzunk grinned brightly. “You do plan to put those old, senile men in your government into their right places, don’t you?”

James snorted. “Yes, something like that.”

Arzunk nodded. “If your are tearing down the existing government anyway, you’ll be in a prime position to argue for the inclusion of magical beings in the future.”

“Putting a few old men in their places and tearing down a government are two very different things”, James protested. The last thing he wanted to do was start something like a revolution, but what the goblin described sounded exactly like that.

Arzunk shook his head. “Not for a Sentinel and Guide on a war path. Two of my brothers are Sentinels and a third is a Guide, I do know what I’m talking about.”

James took a deep breath, but kept quiet. He wanted to contradict the goblins words, but knew deep down, that he could not. If the government did anything to threaten Harry, or Neville, or the little boy who still needed a new name, or any other child that would be part of his Tribe in the future, James would end them with prejudice and without any remorse.

“You see my point”, Arzunk observed. “You have already identified Dumbledore as a threat to your Tribe. And he is pulling a lot more strings in the politics of this country, than he is letting on. - When you come back in five years, you’ll go to war. Maybe not in the traditional sense. But your magic and your instincts won’t care for such minor details.”

“You said you had a bargain, not a request.” James decided not to dwell on the subject of Dumbledore. Those things could be discussed at a later time, when they were save and outside his reach.

Arzunk inclined his head. “Indeed. I am able to make resources available to you and your Tribe for your preparation, inside and outside this country.”

“And you wouldn’t or couldn’t make them available for gold?”, James asked suspiciously.

“Some I could, others not.” Arzunk shrugged. “For me personally it would be much more satisfying to get to watch the fall out of the humans taking such a foolish step against a Sentinel of their own. - Your kind has wilfully forgotten the old ways, because they wouldn’t work with their sense of superiority. It will be magnificent, to see them remember what they try to ignore with such vigour.”

James frowned. “I fear, this time I really don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Yes, I would imagine that. You should talk with your cousin. Perhaps his father wasn’t as negligent as your own. - If you don’t find answers in your family, you should come back to me.” Arzunk looked down at the parchment in front him, where he had made several notes since the beginning of their conversation. “Am I correct in the assumptions, that Lord Longbottom and his family are part of your Tribe?”

“Yes”, James confirmed.

“Then we should include him in this discussion. Your whole Tribe will be part in this bargain, I imagine. - On that note, as the Longbottoms and the Potters are the most prominent clients I’m personally responsible for, I shall take a break from my other duties, to be available to you in whatever branch of Gringotts should be next to your knew home.”

James blinked flabbergasted. “Why?”

Arzunk looked at him with raised brows. “As I said, it will amuse me greatly to watch you tear down anyone who thinks they can make war on you. Regardless of your decision to take on the task I asked of you and your Tribe or not.”

James suppressed the urge to rub his hands over his face. Not even twenty-four hours ago it had seemed like such an easy decision to just leave the country. But with every person he talked to, there were more and more consequences piled on top of it. And even so it all revolved around him not abandoning his home country four good, he knew he would not be able to make another decision.

“Who is part of your Tribe, Lord Potter?”, Arzunk asked, for once politely ignoring James misery. “How many people are you planing to relocate tomorrow?”

James blew out a breath to cover the moment, in which he had to make a quick headcount. “We are twelve people, if my cousin and his wife will come with us. Three of those toddlers.”

Arzunk paused in his note taking. “Your son, Lord Longbottoms son, and who is the third child?”

James scowled. “A boy, who has currently no name. He is the nephew of my wife, but his parents have abandoned him because of his magic. We will adopt him. That means, someone in the Tribe will adopt him for sure. I don’t know if Lily and I should adopt him. But we haven’t discussed it yet with the rest of the Tribe.”

“And those … _parents_ did even take his name from him?” Arzunk sounded nearly feral.

“Unintentionally, but that doesn’t change the fact unfortunately.” James nodded.

Arzunk looked at him darkly. “And do you plan to let just go of this travesty?”

“What could I do?” James huffed and crossed his arms. “I have a lot on my plate. And you yourself just put more on it. There isn’t enough time to plan retribution against Lily’s sister and her husband. Moreover, my sister-in-law has supposedly some fail safes, which would reveal the magical world to the muggles if something happened to her.”

“What reason gave they for abandoning him?”, Arzunk asked unsettled.

James took a breath. “You won’t like this at all”, he began, before he summarised what Lily had told him about the situation. Arzunk’s anger was saturating the air around them with every word James spoke. “We will bring them a homunculus tomorrow, so they can fake the death of their child.”

Arzunk pursed his lips. James knew his surprise was written all over his face, as the goblin stood up, came around the desk and came to stand directly in front of him. Arzunk’s right fist came to rest on the hilt of his sword – which he had worn every single time James had ever seen him – and his left fist hit the opposite shoulder with a loud thud and stayed there, before he bowed down deep.

“Sentinel Potter, I request of you the right of retribution in your stead on the parents of the abandoned child you took into the care of your Tribe.”

James was stunned and it took him several moments of Arzunk remaining in the bow to recognise that there was an answer expected of him. “I grant your request with sincere gratitude, Master Arzunk.” He did not even know were those words came from, but the goblin seemed immensely satisfied as he rose up and went back to his chair.

They stared at each other for a long time, before James eventually started to laugh. “You just made my day. Please share your memories about this with me.”

Arzunk inclined his head smirking. “I may keep you informed.”

“We still haven’t really talked about the things for which I actually came here!”

Arzunk raised his brows. “Or maybe we have and you just hadn’t recognised the reasons for our meeting.”

James huffed, but wisely held back his first petulant retort. “How will it work for us to get to our gold from anywhere else in the world?”

Arzunk chuckled. “You don’t really think there is all this space under this building to hold over a thousand of vaults, do you? - It won’t be a problem to access the exact same vault you have used for the last years from anywhere on the world.”

“I … have never thought about it”, James admitted dumbfounded.

“Like nearly all humans.” Arzunk shook his head. “You’ll have to learn to get those confines out of your head!”

James blinked, stuck by a realization that had hovered at the edge of his awareness for a while now. “Are you … aspiring to be my … teacher, Master Arzunk?”

“As I want to be entertained by your return to England and not utterly humiliated, I think I have no other choice.” Arzunk crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. “And it isn’t without precedence in our two family-lines.” He huffed. “But I’m sure that is another part of the family-lore, that your father didn’t deem necessary to share with you.”

“I feel I should reprimand you for the way you are talking about my dead father, but…”

James sighed desperately. The goblin was not saying anything, that James didn’t think himself. In many aspects Fleamont had been a great father, and he had aspired to be such. But at the same time his estrangement from his family had let him to deprive James of so much.

Arzunk inspected him with raised brows. “But you won’t.”

James shrugged helplessly.

“For your departure tomorrow I will arrange for transportation somewhere to the mainland. Then you’ll have to disclose where you want to go”, Arzunk continued. “And for the house, we can make those arrangements later. It won’t take any damage, if no one is looking after it for two or three weeks. And I’m sure there will be other properties that have to be taken care of.”

“That’s right.” James nodded and chastised himself silently for not thinking of Bathilda house, or Sirius flat.

“That leaves the adoption and the timeline.” Arzunk frowned. “I assume, you will get blood from the birthparents tomorrow?”

James nodded again. “It’s necessary. We don’t want to leave any connection between him and his birthparents. I’m a little bit worried about the freely given part, but they too don’t want any connection remaining, so I hope they will just go with it.”

Arzunk grinned. “Don’t worry about freely given blood. Ask, of course, but take it, if they say no. - There is a very old ritual that doesn’t need freely given blood in a case of such abandonment as it has happened here. It’s outlawed by the humans of course, because in their eyes the forcefully taken blood is more grievous than the complete abandonment of a child.”

“Or maybe, because abandoning a child is such a common thing under magical humans”, James muttered darkly.

Petunia Dursley was not any different to any pureblood magican who discovered their child had no magic. Maybe he should tell her that, just to see her horrified face about being compared to people she disdained so much.

“That is what I said. Basically.” Arzunk shook his head. “It isn’t forbidden inside of my nation. So, as long as you are in this building or any of our banks, you can undertake this ritual for the adoption.”

“How long would it take?”, James asked. “Lily’s sister is expecting us at one in the afternoon. - I would really like to get this adoption done as soon as possible. He shouldn’t be without a name much longer.”

“As soon as I have the blood I would need three hours to prepare”, Arzunk answered. “And I concur, not only because of the matter of the name. You need a magical and legal claim to this child before you leave for another country.”

James sighed. That was yet another thing he had not even thought about. “Let’s say we need half an hour with those people, plus three hours preparation, that would be half past four.”

Arzunk inclined his head. “And roughly an hour for the ritual itself. - Then, I should prepare transportation out of England for six o’clock.”

James sighed, hovering somewhere between relieved at knowing the exact time when they would be outside of the reach of an attack by Voldemort, and nervous about leaving everything behind he had known for all of his life.


	8. Chapter 8

James had hoped for a short rest, when he came back home from Gringotts. Frank being included in the meeting with Arzunk had not made things any easier, but at least there had not been any more new things discussed. They had evolved in a long, tedious discussion about the things they would need to prepare for their return and the things Arzunk would expect of them, if they followed his so called bargain (even if it was more of a request in James eyes).

He had hoped for a little bit of time to touch base with Lily and Remus, maybe even Sirius if he had come back already. But when James entered the wards over his home, he registered immediately the presence of Charles and Efgenia in the house, and that Sirius had not come back yet.

For the second time in as many days James entered his living room to find a picture he was not expecting at all. Remus sat at the same place as the day before, but this time he had Harry in his lap, who was regarding the two unknown people warily. Lily and Charles sat on the sofas, talking quietly and earnestly. And Eugenia was sitting with their nameless boy in Harry’s playing area, enacting some game James did not recognise and speaking to the child in Greek.

It was the first time since James had known the boy, that he was laughing and behaving like the curious child he should be. It was a wondrous thing to see.

“James.” Charles stood as soon as he saw him and in the next moment the young Sentinel found himself embraced by his cousin. “I am so very grateful, that you thought of me and Eugenia while gathering your Tribe.”

“I…” James blinked dumbfounded.

“Let’s talk somewhere without little ears to disturb, yeah?” Charles grabbed his shoulders and looked at him quizzically.

James shared a quick look with Lily, who had taken Harry from Remus and nodded at him. “All right.” He turned and led his cousin into the garden. “I have to admit that gratitude was the last thing I expected from you.”

“What did you expect?”

James huffed. “I wasn’t even sure if you would come. We haven’t even exchanged a letter since my parents funeral and you didn’t have a lot to say to me then, too.”

Charles averted his gaze. “I made mistakes. - I thought you needed time. And I hoped, you would come to me when the situation would be a little bit easier for you.”

“Easier?” James furrowed his brows.

“I suspected that you had awoken, when your friend asked to meet me four years ago. He was very careful not to confirm anything, and I understand why. Seventeen is so very young for an awakening.” Charles crossed his arms, as if to hug himself. “I was surprised to see your wife pregnant, when we last saw each other. Did childbirth force her to awake, too?”

James shook his head. “She awoke a few weeks prior to our wedding.”

Charles exhaled. “That’s good, I assume. But I imagine, childbirth never the less wasn’t easy in your circumstances. - I didn’t want to disturb these last month of her pregnancy and afterwards … I thought to give you one or two more years, before contacting you myself.”

James grimaced. “I … I’m pretty sure, if things weren’t as they are, I wouldn’t have reached out to you. But when I think about my Tribe … I feel this connection to you.”

“I’m very glad Uncle Fleamont didn’t ruin this for you, too”, Charles muttered.

James groaned. “Please, let’s make a deal and not speak about the misgivings of my father in regards to our family legacy in the next few days. Master Arzunk hasn’t spared me with those little stabs for the whole morning!”

Charles chuckled. “I can just imagine. - Why are you gathering your Tribe, James?”

“How much has Lily told you already?”

“Not much.” Charles shook his head. “We only arrived a little more than half an hour ago. She has only told me about the situation with this little boy my wife instantly fell in love with.”

James smiled. “And he with her, too, by the looks of it.”

“Yeah, but not so much with me.” Charles sighed. “He shied away from me immediately.”

“He hasn’t let Sirius or me near to him at all. I don’t think he has a lot of good experiences with males”, James replied.

“Not a lot of good experiences period.” Charles shook his head. “I have no idea how anyone can be so cruel to a child. - Lily said, you want to adopt him.”

James shrugged. “Someone has to adopt him. I … I’m not so sure Lily and I should do it. But…”

Charles interrupted him quickly: “Eugenia and I would take him in a heartbeat.”

“You would?” James looked at his cousin surprised. “I didn’t think you were interested in children.”

“It wasn’t our choice to be childless. Eugenia … she was cursed when she was still very young and she couldn’t bear a child to term.” Charles took a deep breath. “And to adopt…”

James was relieved, that Charles did not finish this sentence, probably only to not violate his request. To adopt a child did not only need the permission but the participation of the head of the family. James started to really dislike his father.

“Are you and Eugenia coming with us?”, James asked.

“Yes, of course.” Charles looked at him gravely. “You are the head of my family. You are … Uncle Fleamont hasn’t told you anything about our history, has he?”

James shook his head. “Nothing, expect how to ignore my instincts so I wouldn’t destroy my family. - I tried to learn with the help of the family grimoire in the last years, but … You know, all those people who have added their journals to it … not one of them has ever sat down and wrote any of it clearly down. There are so many allusions, but it is … as if they expected any heir would learn the really important parts in the oral history through their parents.”

“I thought this grimoire was created to preserve family history.”

“Right?” James nodded. “It utterly failed its purpose. I already started my own journal, that shall be added to the grimoire, and I plan to write down every snipped of information I can get meticulously.”

“That would take more time than you can imagine”, Charles cautioned.

James snorted. “Probably. And probably more time than I have. But there has to be done something about this situation. - Whatever. You are coming with us and we can talk about the things I obviously don’t know later. We’ll have five and a half years with nothing but time as soon as we have found a save place to stay. And I really can’t take on any more than what is already happening.”

He met Charles bemused gaze. “I would be relieved if you and Eugenia would adopt this little boy. I can’t put my finger on it, but something…” James sighed. “I was prepared to do it, but the thought to adopt him myself just felt wrong. - But this adoption would be tomorrow.”

“Did his … birth parents gave you blood for the adoption?”, Charles asked.

James grimaced. “Not yet. Lily and I will go there tomorrow to bring them a fake body, so they can pretend to the whole world their child has died, instead of them abandoning him. We’ll get the blood then.”

“And if they don’t want to give it?”

“That doesn’t matter.” James grinned. “Master Arzunk has assured me there is a ritual that can use forcefully taken blood. I’m tempted to not even ask and make it bloody as hell for them, but … I’m pretty sure I gave up any right for retribution earlier in the day.”

“I can’t follow.” Charles looked at him with raises eyebrows.

“Master Arzunk was furious when he learned of this whole situation. Though accidentally, I may have set my sister-in-law and her husband on the path of a Warmaster.” James huffed. “I can’t even be sorry for it.”

Charles laughed. “I don’t see, why you should. - I still don’t know what is happening here, James.”

James took a deep breath and set out to tell the tale, he had already related to Arzunk in the morning. It was a tedious task but hopefully the last time he had to rehash all the details. “The plan is to leave the country tomorrow and find somewhere, where we can build a save place for the Tribe. And then prepare for a partial return as soon as I’m old enough to take on my political inheritance.”

“That’s…” Charles huffed and shook his head. He took a long moment staring over the garden, before he spoke again. “I begin to understand why you awoke so early, if there are two children in your care, in your Tribe, who are subject to a prophecy.”

James frowned. “The prophecy wasn’t spoken until two years after my awakening.”

“Prophecies do not only exist after they have been spoken or otherwise documented. This prophecy is probably as old as the Dark Lord it speaks of. Those which are spoken should be regarded more as a forewarning, than a foretelling.”

“How do you know this?”, James asked.

Charles chuckled. “I’m married to a Greek woman, I’ve lived for many years now in Greece. There is no folk that has spent more time researching about prophecies and searching for them.”

James sight. “Right.”

“And you are thankfully regarding it as a warning already, as far as I can tell. Where are we going tomorrow?”, Charles asked.

“I’m still contemplating.” James shrugged. “We are leaving England through Gringotts, so no one can easily follow us. Then I’ll have to make a decision. - I learned today that my father was chosen as the heir of grandfather in spite of his … behaviour, because I was born a Sentinel. I had expected resentment from you for that. And for wanting to uproot you and Eugenia, too.”

Charles jaw clenched visibly. “It will take a lot of time to explain this to you in detail. - I never expected to be the head of this family. I knew from a very young age, that I wasn’t the next Sentinel of our family. Everyone but your parents were fairly sure you would be born a Sentinel, as soon as we knew of the pregnancy of your mother. Our family is bound to this magical legacy. I saw you as the future head of my family from the start, even while you where just a child.”

James stared at his cousin with an open mouth. “How? And why?”

“Regrettably we don’t have enough time for this kind of tale now. It will have to wait, until we have secured the Tribe. And it will make it easier to talk about it with the whole Tribe gathered, so I won’t have to repeat it. - I’ll gladly take over the documentation you wish for.”

James sighed. He wished he just knew all those things about his family, but he was aware enough of himself to know that he could not take much more for the moment.

“Will you be able to pack up your home in the short time that is left?”, James asked, deciding to concentrate on the logistics of their current situation.

Charles shook his head. “We have a houself who will arrange for the necessary. I would like to stay with you. And I’m sure Eugenia wouldn’t want to leave our future son behind even for a few hours.” He took a deep breath. “I feel strongly that I should stay with you in the face of a possible attack.”

“I do feel a lot better about the safety of everyone in this house with every new person that’s come here”, James admitted.

“Understandable. I don’t know how you haven’t gone feral and hunted Vo-”

James interrupted him hastily: “Don’t say his name! There lays a taboo over all of England. We really don’t need to draw his attention to us, because someone uttered this name!”

“And the ministry hasn’t done anything?”, Charles asked flabbergasted.

“There are followers of his everywhere”, James explained. “The government won’t do anything. The official party-line is, that there is no threat. His raids are mostly just ignored or it is ignored that it’s his group behind those. After I left the academy and got my trainee position in the Aurors, it became very quickly very clear, that we were only allowed to protect very selected groups of people. It’s frustrating for most Aurors and most of them have found creative ways to work around the official guidelines.”

“That’s not how this should work.” Charles frowned.

“I know.” James nodded gravely. “It is one of the first points on the list Frank and I made yesterday and today about the things that has to change.”

“I hadn’t heard of this … what are you calling him, if you can’t use his name?”, Charles asked irritated.

“Lily labelled him the dark bastard. The public is calling him things like You-know-who and He-who-shall-no-be-named. Obviously, we are all going with Lily’s suggestion.”

Charles rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “Yes, let’s go with Lily’s suggestion. - In the last ten years I was only here for your wedding and the funeral last year. I had heard about something like a budding terrorist group at those occasions, but I haven’t heard anything about them in the Greek news, or the international ones.”

“Of course not”, James said dismissively. “The ministry has been monitoring any information flow in this country for decades. There already wasn’t a lot protest when it started, because not many people here are interested in things that are happening outside of England. And now, they are all just growing up in the status quo and not questioning it. - There was a reason why my note to you was vague and I send it through Gringotts.”

“You are drawing a very dark picture of England here”, Charles noted. “And yet you want to come back here?”

James crossed his arms growling. “Someone has to stand up and do something! This is my home, our family’s home. I won’t abandon this country as long as I see a fighting chance to save it!”

“That is the Sentinel speaking out of you.” Charles closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Maybe it was not only the prophecy pertaining your son and this other boy, that let to your early awakening. - You do know that you are standing before a decisions that will determine the path of the rest of your life, yes?”

James nodded. “Lily and I are aware of this.” That did not mean that they knew exactly what the path they were currently choosing would entail.

Charles turned and took a few steps, till he stood directly in front of James. He straightened his back and regarded James with a sincere look. He said with a firm voice: “You will protect our Tribe and I will protect you. Whatever life may throw at us, I’ll follow you.”

J ames blinked dumbfounded, while he felt a bond settle between him and his cousin very similar to the one he had shared with Sirius for the last four years. “ I … appreciate your trust.” He exhaled sharply. “That’s some official pledge then?”

“As far as I know, the meaning is a little bit different for every Tribe”, Charles answered. “Magic provided me with the right words the very moment I choose to follow this … calling. The words are chosen by the first Shieldbrother, who makes this pledge. Your friend, in this case. … I’m sorry, I have forgotten his name. I just remember that he is a Black.”

“Sirius”, James provided. “And he really despises this word. I kind of promised him we would find an alternative.”

C harles snorted. “I gather there has to be  _something_ in all this  that ha s to show your age. -  I’m surprised that he isn’t here.”

James sighed.  “Sirius is visiting Lord Black at the moment. Who is his grandfather and whose heir Sirius is.  They haven’t spoken in more than five years and I’m relieved Sirius took my advise.”

“That’s a mighty ally you have already gathered. And without even trying.”

“Lord Black isn’t an ally just because his grandson is one of my best friends”, James said dismissively.

C harles grinned. “You have so much to learn, still!”

“Yes, I know!” James rolled his eyes. “You really don’t have to remind me, too!”

“I’ll teach you everything I can as soon as possible”, Charles promised earnestly and sighed. “If I had known what lays ahead of us, I wouldn’t have waited for you to come to me. I’m genuine sorry, that I … let myself be sucked into Uncle Fleamont’s head space.”

James furrowed his brow. Most of his questions would have to wait, but there was something, that he could  not let go of, since Arzunk had mentioned it earlier, because he had never heard of it before.  “ Master Arzunk said something to me, about how humans had forgotten the old ways or started to wilfully ignore them.  And he alluded, that it had something to do with Sentinels and Guides, but he would n’t elaborate. Can you explain, what he meant?”

C harles hummed. “ There should be balance in Magic and once, every magical being was supposedly aware of the fact that they had to contribute to this balance.  To simplify a really complex and branched out magical theory for the purpose of this conversation, it basically means , that they shouldn’t just take from Magic, but had to give back,  too . -  Grandfather told me that Sentinels and Guides weren’t only protectors to their people but to this balance, too.  That’s the reason for the magical gifts you received with your awakening.”

“I … can see, how those would help.” James nodded thoughtfully.

“Communities were build around contributing to this balance”, Charles continued. “A lot of magical religion is build on it. Apparently things began to change when the magical world separated from the non-magical world. The structure of many governments changed at that time, not only the ones of humans. Nowadays there isn’t a lot thought about the balance in everything, or how to contribute to it. I have learned nothing about it in Hogwarts.”

He shook his head huff ing . “I think, in the mostly magical families, it is still remembered and in some even cherished. But there is this mindset in humans, that the own group of people, however that is defined, is the best.  That there should be a balance between Magic and all magical beings is contradicting this mindset. -  Grandfather was convinced that someday there would be an event to restore the balance between the magical beings.  I imagine, Master Arzunk hopes your action could bring back a little bit balance in Britain.”

“Because I’m a Sentinel and its part of my mandate”, James muttered darkly. As if he had not already enough on his plate.

“Part of your imperative, maybe”, Charles replied. “I think you will seek some sort of balance without even consciously thinking about it. It won’t be something extra, you have to take on, but something that your instincts will wave into your actions.”

T his time, James did  not hold back the urge to rub his hands over his face in frustration. “I really would like to just get a break!”

Charles clapped his shoulder. “ It will be easier tomorrow, as soon as we have left England. I imagine it is mostly the continued immediate threat that’s making you anxious. - And one big thing I could already take from your shoulders. Did you tell Master Arzunk that you and Lily would be the adopting parents?”

“I told him it would probably be us, but that I would still have to talk to the rest of the Tribe in the evening”, James answered.

Charles nodded slowly, thoughtfully.  “ I’ll send him a note that Eugenia and I will be the future parents. That’s one little boy less you need to worry about and you won’t need to be there for the preparations. Your role as my patriarch in the adoptions ritual will be mostly passive.”

J ames laughed wryly. “You haven’t even talked with Eugenia yet!”

“You did see her with the child, didn’t you? - I share eighteen years of marriage with this woman. There are some things we don’t have to talk about any more. The only thing we will have to talk about is a name.”

“Go do this!”, James instructed. “And I will sit down here for a while and try to head of the lurking insanity!”

C harles drew his cousin into a quick hug. “The Tribe will be alright. You are doing a great job, James. Don’t doubt yourself!”

“Thanks”, James muttered perplexed.

Charles smiled, when he let him go, and went back inside the house without another word.  James followed him with his eyes, till he could  not see him any more, and then he let himself drop into the grass. He stretched out on the ground, staring in the cloudy sky, and tried to just shove all the whirling thoughts out of his head for a few minutes.

B ut instead of clearing his head, his hearing latched onto the noises in the house and he started  subconsciously following all of the Tribe, who where there.  He heard Bathilda come through the gate in the fence they had build in month ago, so Lily would  not have to leave the wards, if she went to visit their neighbour.  And he followed her and Remus back to her house, where he lost them, when they crossed the wards, but he kept searching, and searching.

Searching…

Little hands on his face startled him out of the trance he had fallen into.  But it were Lily’ s voice and Lily’s hand in his hair that enabled him to find a focus in his surrounding s ,  until he could finally recognize the hands in his face as those of his son, who was sitting besides his head and patting his cheeks,  while half of the time missing them.

“It’s been a long time, since you got so lost in your senses.” Lily sounded worried, even though she was smiling.

J ames sat up, which elicited a loud protest from Harry. He pulled his son into his lap and pressed a kiss in his hair, which pacified the toddler. “I tried to follow Remus’ and Bathilda’s heartbeat into her wards. That wasn’t such a grand idea.”

Lily snorted and shook her head. “Yes. - Remus is helping Bathilda pack the rest of her belongings into one of our dimensional trunks you left in the hall. They will close up her house and she will spend the night with us.”

James furrowed his brow. “Where exactly will she sleep? I’m not even sure, were Charles and Eugenia will sleep.”

“Bathilda will get our guest-room. As Harry prefers to sleep with us anyway, Charles, Eugenia and their future son will sleep in Harry’s room. And Remus and Sirius will spend one night in the living room”, Lily explained.

James looked at her quizzically. “Are you okay with them adopting your nephew?”

“Yes, absolutely.” Lily nodded and averted her eyes. “I’m relieved, really. It is so much change for all three boys we are taking with us. It’s good that every one of them will have his own set of parents and no one will have to adjust to a sibling additionally.”

“I’m relieved, too”, James assured. “Even if I couldn’t have put the reason for it in words.”

“I’m worried about tomorrow”, Lily said quietly. “I’m worried sick about the things I plan to do to the memories of my sister and her husband.”

“You’re using your gift, to protect our Tribe. That’s exactly what they’re there for!” With a hand in her neck, James pulled Lily’s head on his shoulder, and then rubbed slow circles over her back. “Them knowing that we took in their unwanted son could be a danger to our Tribe.”

“I know”, Lily muttered. “Doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad about it. - And I worry about the blood we need for the adoption. Will it still be recognised as freely given if they don’t remember the fact?”

“Will they even give us blood?”, James replied sceptically. “That’s what I was most worried about. But it doesn’t matter. Master Arzunk assured me there is ritual which could use forcefully taken blood and which can be undertaken legally, as long as we are on the grounds of the goblin nation.”

Lily looked up at him surprised. “You have talked with our account manger about it?”

“It came up, when we talked about how many people we would relocate. He knew of Harry and Neville of course, but wanted to know, who the third toddler was.” James blew out a breath. “I didn’t spare him any details and … your sister and her husband won’t have a long time to enjoy their life without a magical son.”

Lily sat up and regarded James suspiciously. “And what does that mean?”

“I have no idea.” James shrugged. “Before I knew what was happening, Master Arzunk was standing in from of me, bowing down, and requesting permission, to seek retribution in my stead. He called me _Sentinel_ Potter. I would like to see them pay for their behaviour, so I just granted it. - But I have no idea what it will entail. Probably financial ruin and a lot humiliation.”

L ily gaped at him for a long time, but finally she nodded. “ Yes, that sounds … fair.”

H arry wiggled out of James lap and began crawling around them, picking up grass and dirt and inspecting it very earnestly. James threw a warming charm over him, while observing him.

“How do you feel?”, Lily asked.

“Overwhelmed.” James sighed. “Didn’t it seem like such an easy thing to do yesterday, when we decided to leave?”

Lily snorted. “For roughly ten seconds. Then I started to think about the logistics and our Tribe  and there was nothing easy any more. -  And it’s frightening, that we will leave without any plan where we will end up.  All the other things that are piling up in front of us I just try to sort and catalogue to contemplate later. ”

“And it just gets more with every person I talk to”, James said. “When Sirius is back, I’ll have to talk with all of you about something, Master Arzunk asked of me, of the whole Tribe really. - The things here were quiet, yes?”

Lily nodded.  “ Bathilda was here for a few hours to look after the boys, so Remus and I could prepare the packing. It just needs to be transferred into the trunks. With the help of Charles and Eugenia, that won’t even take two hours.” She hesitated. “ I had a lot of time to think this morning.”

James raised his eyebrows. “That doesn’t sound ominous at all, love.”

Lily sighed. “There were two things that came to my mind.  I have thought a lot about … being attacked, and how I would accomplish it to defend myself and Harry. -  I would be utterly unprepared. We didn’t learn a lot about fighting in school, not even formal duelling.  And … in a situation like the Death Eaters coming here, it would be … I have no idea how to kill, even in self defence.”

“I know.” James growled. It was one reason, why in the end it seemed like the better option to just flee than to stay and wait for such an attack.

“Wherever we end up, we need to find people who can teach us to fight”, Lily demanded. “And to fight to kill, not to subdue, like the Aurors do and like Dumbledore is teaching the Order. Those people won’t hesitate to kill us and our children. I don’t want to give them a chance to succeed, because I’m not capable of killing them myself.”

“I absolutely agree.” James looked to her gravely. “All of us will learn to fight. Every single one of us has to be able to protect the Tribe.”

Lily took a deep breath. “And not just with magic. I know, that … a lot of people here in England frown upon anything that’s not magic.  I have seen you do so, although I know you are not normally of this mindset. It’s just so ingrained in all who have grown up with magic around them.  To know how to fight without our wands will be an advantage. ”

H is first impulse was indeed to frown upon this idea and he bit down hard on his tongue.  James had already had this thought on his own and  had dismissed  it without even contemplating it. But he knew Lily had a point,  and they needed every advantage they could get.

“The boys could learn to defend themselves this way a lot sooner as if they had to wait to be allowed to carry a wand”, Lily continued. “No one here in England would expect that from them. No one here would even know how to react! Neither to us using anything else than magic, nor to seemingly defenceless kids.”

“I promise you we will look into it”, James replied slowly. “But that’s not really what’s making you anxious.”

L ily sighed. “Well. I just wanted to put it out there.”

“And the other thing you have thought about this morning?”, James asked.

Lily closed her eyes. “When … when you think about our Tribe, how does Peter fit in for your?”

“He doesn’t fit”, James spat without thought.

Lily flinched slightly. “Yeah, I know you don’t trust him any more. Haven’t for a long time.” She did  not spell out, that she had  not trusted or liked Peter ever, and James was thankful for it. “But he was once one of your best friends. He was so when you aw oke . Do you feel no connection between him and our Tribe at all?”

James averted his gaze. There was still a connection to Peter and it was infuriating.  Until now he had been very successful in ignoring it.  There was no chance that he would tell Peter of the plans they had made for  the Tribe.

“I think, you need to talk to him, before we leave”, Lily said quietly. “Not to reconcile, but to make a clean break. And maybe to get a chance to learn, when things went wrong.”

J ames took a deliberate breath to calm himself. “ To what end?”

Lily’s nervousness,  that he was feeling through their bond, had  not dissipated at all. “ I just feel we shouldn’t leave unfinished personal business behind, that pertains the Tribe. That’s why I went to my sister, even though I knew her answer.”

“I’m pretty sure, there isn’t a child waiting with Peter who needs rescuing”, James replied.

L ily sighed. “No. But her son wasn’t why I went to her. I thought she would worship him. Children of her own, her own little family was everything she ever talked about. -  To talk to her did severe the connection I felt for years, even though I thought there shouldn’t be anything left between us!”

“It’s not just Peter you are talking about.” James looked at her sharply, as he realized the reason for her nervousness. “You want to talk to Snape!”

“I feel I need to”, Lily confessed.

“While we don’t know for sure what Peter is up to, we can all be pretty sure Snape is wearing the mark of the dark bastard!”, James grit out. “There is no other reason for Malfoy to have paid his apprenticeship!”

L ily swallowed hard. “Yes, I know that. But he was for a long time my very best friend. He helped me a lot in the first few years after I came into the magical world. - I don’t know what went wrong for him, after his mother died in third year. I really wish I could have helped him, but he didn’t let me.”

She took a deep breath. “I still feel him connected to our Tribe. And I think the only way to severe this link, is to speak with  him personally. I took a whole hour before lunch mediating on it,  but to no avail. - And I think it’s the same for you and Peter.”

J ames closed his eyes. “I don’t like this. - When should we even have time to include these meetings.”

“I’m not going with you when you meet Peter”, Lily said. “And I won’t take you with me when I meet Severus.”

James looked at her infuriated. “You just told me you didn’t know how to defend yourself!”

“If I know one thing for sure, it’s that Severus won’t attack me. Or bring any of his associates to a meeting with me”, Lily rebutted. 

“And why is that?”, James asked acidly.

“You know why. Don’t let us fight, James. Please.”

J ames braced his arms on his thighs and took a few levelled, calming breathes. “You are right. I sorry, love. I just hate this bastard.”

“As I hate Peter”, Lily said solemnly. “We should remember this in the future. If one of us makes a new friend the other despises on sight, the friendship is not worth it.”

J ames smiled hesitatingly. “ Deal. - You are sure this is necessary?”

Lily nodded.

“Dragonshit.” James ran his fingers through his heir, ignoring Lily’s protest about cursing in their son’s presence, who was happily digging into the dirt and not even paying attention to them. “I want you to take a portkey with you, just to be sure!”

“If you’ll do the same”, Lily replied.

“Yeah, whatever.” James shrugged. 

He hated this whole idea, of him talking to Peter, and of Lily even going anywhere near Snape.  But he had to admit, that he still felt a connection to Peter he did  not seem able to get rid of.  And if Lily had such a connection with Snape, he wanted her to get rid of it as soon as possible. 

“Will Snape even make himself available, if you asked for a meeting on such short notice.”

“Pretty sure he’ll jump at it”, Lily muttered.

“He is obsessed with you. That has nothing to with love, you know that, right?”, James asked.

Lily nodded dejected. “I recognised it the first time I encountered him after I awoke.”

James rubbed his hands over his face. “Okay, let’s figure out when to squeeze these meetings in so we can arrange them.”


	9. Chapter 9

It was already late afternoon, when Sirius came back from the visit with his grandfather. The house felt eerily empty at this time, with nearly all of their things packed away. Only the furniture they would need for the evening and the night remained. James was amused to see his friend come to a halt mid-step, when the changes in the house registered to him. It had felt unreal to see the change happen, and it had to be a little bit of a shock for Sirius, who had left in the morning a well lived in house.

“I haven’t been home to pack my own stuff yet”, Sirius stated blinking and James got the impression, his friend had not even thought about his own packing till this very moment.

“We’ll get to it in the evening”, James promised. “You are not angry at me, so I assume, that you didn’t have a huge fight with your grandfather.”

“It was…” Sirius shrugged. “Not at all, what I expected. Good, I guess. - He wants to meet you. Today if possible.”

James sighed, but he had expected this request, after Frank and Arzunk had told him to do so. “Alright. Are you coming with me or is he expecting me to come alone?”

“He hasn’t said anything, but I would like to come with you”, Sirius answered.

James smiled. “I would like that, too. - Bathilda and Eugenia are preparing an early dinner, because somehow we only remembered to feed the kids lunch, but not us. We can go back to your grandfather after we’ve eaten.”

“So, I’m taking it she and your cousin are coming with us?”, Sirius asked.

“Yes. And they’ll adopt our nephew tomorrow, thankfully.” James put an arm around Sirius shoulder and steered him to the living room. “So, I wanted to show you something for days now, but our working schedules just wouldn’t line up our free time.”

“When do they ever?” Sirius snorted. “Did you already sent your resignation?”

James shook his head. “It’s the third of my four free days. I’ll send a resignation letter tomorrow, right before we leave. You?”

“Called in sick, after you left for Gringotts. I didn’t want to rise any suspicion in quitting as long as we are still here”, Sirius answered.

“My thought exactly!” James nodded in agreement. He called for Remus and Charles, while he crossed the living room and led all three men outside. “Don’t be startled”, he said, just a moment before a big, semitransparent griffin appeared a few feet ahead of them.

Of course both of his friends and his cousin took a startled step back and James couldn’t help but laugh. He himself had landed on his arse, when his spirit animal had appeared before him for the first time. He was huge, his shoulders ended easily two inches over James’ head, with the head, wings and front claw that of a golden eagle, while the rest of his huge body was that of a mountain lion. In James mind he was magnificent and majestic.

“He’s come to me for the first time a few weeks ago”, James explained, while petting the feathered neck of the griffin. He had not even known that he was waiting for it until it happened. Of course he had known of spirit animals, but other than that they were perpetual companions of Sentinels and Guides, he had not known their purpose. He still would not be able put it in words, but he knew there had been something missing in him, until the griffin had shown himself.

“He is beautiful”, Sirius whispered.

“Yes”, Remus agreed. “I had halfway expected it to be a stag.”

James turned and grinned at his friends. “Me, too!”

Charles was staring at him and the griffin open mouthed. “The spirit animal of every single Sentinel in our family has always been a griffin. I have never seen grandfathers griffin, but … there is speculation, that it’s the same griffin, that has accompanied our family through the centuries.”

Remus looked at him thoughtful. “That explains the griffin on your coat of arms.”

Charles nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly why it’s there.”

Remus eyes were fixed on the griffin full of fascination. “There are history books that speak about your grandparents, how they used their spirit animals in fights during both wars they fought in.”

James frowned. “Really?” He had never seen such a book.

Sirius nodded laughing. “Not in the books we used in school, but in those that specialise in the history of the wars. Your grandparents were nearly as revered as Dumbledore after the last war, even though they never faced Grindelwald himself.”

“Why do I not know this?”, James asked confused. Of course he knew of his grandparents involvement in the wars, but not that they had made it explicitly into the written down history about it.

Remus raised his eyebrows. “Because you were more interested in Quidditch and Lily, than the books I spoke about, probably.”

James crossed his arms, while Sirius and Remus laughed loudly and even his griffin emitted a sound, that sounded suspiciously like snickering.

Charles smirked, but had mercy with his cousin. “Why were you expecting a stag, James?”

“Because it’s my animagus form.” James shrugged. “Remus searched for everything on Sentinels and Guides in the Hogwarts library, long before I awoke. And he showed me a text, were it was speculated, that every person has a connection to the plane of existence were the spirit animals come from. And as Sentinels and Guides normally aren’t able to achieve an animagus transformation, it was speculated, that an animagus is another form of representation of the spirit animals.”

Charles snorted. “That’s one of those new age crap things from people, who try to refute that Sentinels and Guides still hold a special role. - When exactly did you achieve your animagus transformation?”

“Beginning of fifth year somewhere. It took us more than three years.”

Charles looked to Sirius and Remus. “By Merlin, who let you do this during school? Both of you are animagi, too?”

“We didn’t ask anyone if we were allowed to do it!”, Sirius informed him uppish. “We did it, because we could!”

Remus sighed deeply. “I’m a werewolf. They wanted to stay with me during the full moons to help me.”

“Oh.” Charles smiled. “Of course, I can see how that would seem a good idea at the age of … you were twelve, when you started to train, yes? For Gryffindors at least. - Are you registered?”

James and Sirius exchanged a quick look. “We weren’t, for the longest time”, James confessed. “But we talked about it with our training officer, when we started at the Aurors. Our registration is sealed and he is the only one to know about it.”

“Did you have problems with the transformation after your awakening?”, Charles asked couriously. “That’s the reason why neither Sentinels nor Guides even attempt this normally.”

“The worst problems.” James shuddered in memory. It had messed with his senses like nothing else. “But I was excellently motivated to get it back under control. The first full moon back in school after this summer was no problem at all.”

“I’m a little bit perturbed that you refuted this article. A griffin would have been a great animagus form!”, Sirius said impressed.

“Has Lily’s spirit animal shown itself?”, Remus asked.

James shook his head. “No. But it took mine four years to come out and play.”

“Yes, but he came in a time of great unrest for you.” Remus shrugged. “It’s not unrealistic to think, that Lily’s spirit animal could come, too, as some kind of reinforcement.”

“Can you communicate with him?”, Charles asked.

James sighed. “No, not really. I got a few impressions, but it was hard to understand. But I think it will get easier over time. I know he is very, very old. And he has a name. But I haven’t been able to understand it yet.”

“There’s not a lot known about them. I think grandfather knew a lot, but he was never willing to share much.” Charles shook his head. “I wish I had just once seen his griffin, only so we could know if it’s indeed the same.”

“Something like a guardian of our family”, James muttered thoughtful.

The griffin inclined his head and rubbed his beak through James’ heir. James was getting a feeble impression, that his spirit animal was agreeing with him.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

They had spent a long time in the garden, mostly admiring James spirit animal, until the women and their two boys had followed them for a short while. Both of the boys had been more intimidated by the griffin than anything else, and James had send him away laughing.

While they ate, James told them of Arzunk’s request from the morning. It started a heated discussion, not only about this proposal, but although about the atrocious laws that were waiting to be ratified. The first set, which was already drown out, would only affect werewolves, but other were already being discussed.

It was a futile discussion, as there was just no possibility for them to do anything against it for the next five years. In the end, James took a certainty out of this discussion, that his Tribe as a whole had no objections against them standing up for magical beings as a whole.

Nearly immediately after dinner, James and Sirius left their Tribe to apparate to the Black Mansion. It was more like a castle and probably nearly as old as Hogwarts. The Black family was one of the oldest in the country and they hold onto a lot of things to proudly remember that.

Arcturus Black was waiting for them in the entrance hall. “I’m glad you could make time to meet me, Lord Potter.”

James inclined his head, surprised by the greeting. “I was expecting your invitation, Lord Black. After all, I want to take your heir out of the country for a not yet determined amount of time. - And I won’t hold this title for another five and a half years!”

Black snorted. “I never liked those changes in that law. Unfortunately it was one of the last things my father voted on, before I took over those responsibilities and he didn’t see my point at all. I wasn’t successful in changing it back since then.” He indicated a door to the left with his hand. “Let’s sit down. - Can I offer you something to drink? Or to eat, as it is dinnertime?”

“We ate with the … rest of the family”, Sirius answered, as his grandfather led them into a small sitting room, obviously designed for guests and not family.

James looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows. He was sure his friend had wanted to say Tribe in that little pause. “I’ll take just a water, thank you.”

Black nodded and a glass appeared on the small table directly beside the place James took on one of the sofas. Very notably for James and the older Black, Sirius took the seat beside James without hesitating.

“I would like to thank you, Lord Potter”, Lord Black began, after he had sat down in a chair across from them. “For both of your letters and for sending Sirius to me today.”

James smiled. “I haven’t told him to do anything. I asked him to think about it, nothing else. - It was his decision to visit you today. And I’m relieved that you didn’t disappoint him.”

Black raised a brow and Sirius sighed deeply. “It does turn out my mother is an even greater bitch, than we thought.”

“It does seem as if my daughter-in-law intercepted and manipulated the mail between myself and probably both of my grandsons”, Black explained. “Both Sirius and me were operating under false assumptions. We have a lot to talk about and work through.”

James sighed. “And that could be a problem.”

Black inclined his head. “Sirius told me of his plans to leave England tomorrow, together with you. But he wouldn’t tell me the reason for this hasty … retreat. He told me I had to ask you.”

“And are you asking me?”

“Yes, I would very much like to know why you are leaving your home.” Lord Black’s fingers were tapping on the armrest of his chair. “But I have an inclination, why Sirius is intent on following you.”

James frowned, but decided to hold back his own question for the moment. “My son is targeted by the man most of your family are intent on to follow. Harry deserves a place to grow up where he isn’t a prisoner in his own home, because a madman thinks it a good idea to make war on a child.”

Black sneered. “I have never even thought about supporting … this man.”

“We are calling him the dark bastard”, Sirius chimed in grinning.

James crossed his arms. “You haven’t sanctioned anyone in your family for supporting him either. That has already cost you one grandson.”

“I see your age is deceiving your true character.” Black blew out a breath. “I don’t see how I could have saved Regulus if I had forbidden him from following the path he had sat himself on.”

“I agree. Such a sanction should have come many years prior and directed at his parents, who sat him on this path practically before he started Hogwarts.”

James knew why the Lord Black had been absent in those years. But even though James could not even imagine the pain of loosing his wife, it was no excuse for Black’s lack of attention to the rest of his family. It had cost Sirius a lot and probably Regulus, too.

“I see you are not inclined to pull your punches with me.”

James snorted. “Sirius is my brother in all but blood. He suffered a lot for your inability to overcome your grief. Regulus did too, I assume, but in contrast to Sirius, he choose to give in to his parents. In the end that cost him more, than Sirius had ever to pay.”

Lord Black’s gaze drifted from James to Sirius and back. “But he is not just your brother, am I right?”

“I don’t know what you mean”, James answered frowning.

“The head of a family feels it, if one of their own creates a magical bond to someone else”, Black stated. “Your family is so small, I doubt you had a chance for such an experience yet. - Four years ago, only days before you and Sirius started you last year in Hogwarts, I felt Sirius swear himself to someone. Even if I couldn’t proof it, I never doubted this person was you.”

James shrugged. “So?”

And Sirius crossed his arms with a stubborn look on his face. “I’m not taking it back!”

“I would never expect that!”, Lord Black reassured earnestly. “But I would like to know why. And what exactly you swore to do, Sirius.”

“I swore to protect James. And his future family”, Sirius answered.

“And why did you do this?”, Black asked. “I can’t imagine a situation for two seventeen year old schoolboys to need such a pledge.”

Sirius looked to James and waited. It was clear he would not reveal his reasons without James’ consent, even if it was the head of his house who asked.

“Are you familiar with the history of my family, Lord Black?”, James asked.

Black nodded. “Yes. - I imagine, there aren’t a lot of people in this country, who aren’t familiar with certain parts of you family’s legacy.”

For a long moment, James regarded the older man thoughtfully. He wished for Lily’s input in discerning the motives of Sirius grandfather. It was often hard to interpret what his senses told him about people he was not profoundly familiar with.

In the end, it were the things James had learned about Arcturus Black from those letters to his parents that let him decide to show Lord Black a certain level of trust. “The legacy of my family awoke in me in this summer you were talking about.”

Black led himself fall back in his chair. “What darkness lays ahead of us, if there is a need for such a young Sentinel?”

“A darkness most of your family is actively supporting”, James retorted. “And, to be fair, probably a second darkness from a place where not many would expect to find any darkness.”

“You are not letting this go, are you?”

“You could do something to hinder the dark bastard’s progress”, James said gravely. “I can’t do anything, because of the laws of this country. Because I don’t even know how to fight for life and death, even though my instincts are screaming at me to hunt him down and kill him. - Our ministry won’t do anything, because he has bought to many people. - But you could do a lot, only by stopping those in your family who support the dark bastard.”

“The politics of my family are very … complicated”, Black tried to deflect.

James scoffed. “My cousin came post hast when I called, and we haven’t spoken a lot basically my whole life. - Your family isn’t interested in your opinion because you haven’t done a lot to lead them since your wife died. But you are still their Lord. They wouldn’t dare to officially disobey, if you put your foot down. - How much of the Black fortune is financing the war preparations the Death Eaters and their Lord are undertaking? How much would still be left to them, if you closed up your vaults?”

“James!”, Sirius whispered, fidgeting nervously beside him. James could just imagine how unpleasant it had to be for his friend, that he was challenging his grandfather so openly.

“You’re not doing anything either”, Black replied unimpressed. “You are just running away.”

“No.” James smirked. “I’ll put my family in a place where they’re safe. So I won’t have to worry about protecting them and being distracted by it. I’m coming back as soon as I turn 27. And I’ll come back with a Bang.”

James was deliberately putting every ounce of confidence on display that he could muster. He was not at all sure if they would really be able to make any difference, coming back in five and a half years. And the last two days had not done anything to shore up his confidence, not with how often he had stood in front of this wall of knowledge he just did not have.

“I see”, Arcturus muttered.

“There isn’t much I could do here, really”, James reminded. “I thought I could protect the people in this country by becoming an Auror. But as long as the ministry is ignoring the looming threat, even the hands of the Aurors are bound.”

“Most of our peers are of the opinion, that these so called Death Eaters are a small rebellious group, that will dispel themselves soon enough”, Black said thoughtful. “Why do you think they are indeed preparing for a war, as you said?”

“Because they aren’t a new organisation”, James answered. “They haven’t disbanded in more than ten years now. The attacks are increasing and they aren’t trying to cover them up any more. This whole taboo over his name is infusing fear in the whole country, while the threat still isn’t officially recognized. - And then there is the reason, why the dark bastard is targeting my son. Prophecies aren’t just made about any flimsy criminal.”

“And he is gaining supporters left and right”, Sirius butted in. “They are sprouting his propaganda all over the place and gaining more support in it. Last year, when you reprimanded my mother publicly for her nonsense, you were more criticised for it than she was!”

Lord Black finally nodded. “I do see your point. And I agree with you that something should be done.”

“So, why haven’t you already done something?”, James asked.

Arcturus smiled. “Ah, and there is a glimpse of your youth. Only because you can’t see something happening, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. - Sometimes, if you are standing against a great opposition, things have to be slow, if you want to succeed. I don’t intend to end up like the late Lord Lestrange.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “To sanction the rest of my family for the goals they are supporting would surely lead to my death without proper preparation. And possibly to Sirius’ death, so someone else could take up the mantle of head of the family. - The things I have arranged aren’t as radical as your plans to protect those you treasure, of course.”

“What are your plans?”, Sirius asked.

“I have very carefully build an alliance of those who are neither supporting … ah, the dark bastard, nor Dumbledore. We are not many, but we are able to hinder a lot of the legislative plans of both camps”, Black explained. “The next step is indeed to cut of as much support for the … dark bastard, as we can. - Who has come up with this name? It’s a brilliant idea!”

Sirius grinned. “We’ll be sure to tell Lily of you appreciation!”

“Yes, please do so.” Black nodded. “I’ll be sure to use it when ever he comes up. - I have secured my own well-being as good as I can. And if you leave the country, Sirius, there won’t be any danger for you. So, there will be a lot of unhappy people in our family in the next few month.”

James huffed. “You were testing me!”

Lord Black smirked. “Of course I was. You do intend to take my heir outside of my reach. - Where are you going?”

“Even if I already new that, I wouldn’t tell you”, James replied, shaking his head. “But I’m sure we can arrange communication and maybe even meetings through the bank.”

“You are trusting the goblins so much?”, Black asked surprised.

James shrugged. “Since I awoke, there aren’t a lot of humans any more that I trust more than the goblins.”

Black hummed. “How curious. - Do you already know what your political agenda will be, when you come back?”

“The first thing will be, to end the dark bastard”, James stated. “And if those ridiculous _creature laws_ are passed, I’ll do everything to reverse them. Other then that … It will be a goal to undermine Dumbledore’s power base.”

“Will it?” Black raised an eyebrow astonished. “Your father was for the most part a fierce supporter of Dumbledore. I would have thought you to be the same.”

“I tried to work with him in these last few years”, James confessed. “Even though I haven’t been able to trust him for a few years now. But … We have only speculations of course, but we have reason to believe he is trying to set us up. To what end, I’m not sure.”

“No one can be sure what his actual goals are”, Black said darkly.

“What’s your goal in the end, Lord Black?”, James asked.

Black stared at him for a very long time. Eventually, he said: “I don’t think, I have found them yet. - I once thought to secure the future for my children and grandchildren, I had to secure the position of the magicans in this country. I couldn’t see where this isolation from magical beings and from non-magical humans would lead.”

“But now you see it?”, James asked.

“I see the same war ahead of us, that you spoke about”, Black answered without pause. “And it comes from the escalation of the very same rhetoric I was using many years ago. - The peers I’m aligned with will vote against the laws you mentioned, but I fear it won’t be enough. And there are more, similar laws planned. … If there won’t be a war against the dark bastard, there will be a rebellion of those we are trying to subjugate.”

James nodded. “There will be.”

“Five years is a long time, Lord Potter”, Black said quietly. “It may well be, that you’ll come back to a war torn country.”

“I know.” James sighed. “If so, I’ll take on the task to rebuild this country. - But what ever happens in those five years, I hope very much you’ll take care of yourself. I would like us to be allies, when the time comes.”


	10. Chapter 10

When the next morning came around, Lily wished she could just stay in bed and skip all the unpleasantness, that lay ahead of her on this day. She was not even sure what she dreaded more, the meeting with her sister, the talk with Severus or to leave the place behind, she had thought would be the home of her family.

James dragged her out of the bed relentlessly and reminded her of the good things, that would happen on this day, too. In the evening their whole Tribe would be safe form Voldemort and whatever Dumbledore had planed for them. And prior to that, in the afternoon, her nephew would get new, better parents and a new name. As both of those things would happen after everything she was dreading, it was something to hold onto through the first part of the day.

The morning was surprisingly quiet and soothing, all things considered. They were ready for departure, the only thing still to do was to create the homunculus, which Bathilda, Remus and Lily did after a long, cosy breakfast, that turned nearly into a brunch. The last two days had been so hectic and they all had assumed there would not be enough time to get all the things done, they needed to do. It was sobering to now have hours on end, where they could not do anything, and this feeling was only accelerated by the emptiness of the house.

The plan for the day was, that all of them would leave the house shortly before one in the afternoon. Lily and James would bring the homunculus to Petunia and get the blood they needed for the adoption. Charles would accompany them, but wait in the park Lily had chosen as an apparition point. He would then bring the blood to Gringotts, where the rest of the Tribe would already wait, so that he and Eugenia could prepare the adoption. James and Lily would go their separate ways from there, to meet with Peter and Severus respectively, before going to Gringotts themselves.

Roughly two hours before their departure, Lily retracted to her most loved place in the garden to mediate. She knew that it was necessary to protect her Tribe from any undue influence from her sister, and so it would be mandatory to manipulate her and her husbands mind. It had never even been a question in Lily’s mind, that Petunia would need to forget that her son was not really dead, but the thought of actually doing it unsettled her a lot.

When James came to her, to wake her out of her trance, the rest of the Tribe expect of Charles had already left. Lily was intensely relieved about it, even though it was at the same time a really unsettling feeling to have taken her son away from her without her getting to say goodbye.

“We won’t have to spent a lot of time with those people”, James reminded her softly.

Lily sighed. “I wish we wouldn’t have to spent any time with them. - I thought about what you have told me about Master Arzunk’s reaction. The goblins could probably take care of my sister’s … little precaution. If I didn’t think it imperative that the whole world thought Dudley Dursley dead, I would’ve suggested to let the goblins take care of it.”

“But with Dumbledores involvement even in this situation, there needs to be the proper evidence for a little boys death”, James replied. “I don’t want to give him a chance to use this in any way, and probably against us.”

“Exactly.” Lily shook her head.

It would not be hard to draw a connection between Charles Potter’s son and Lily’s missing nephew, if there was any doubt on the death of the later, with the situation as it was. They already had made plans to produce the necessary documents that would show, that Eugenia and Charles had adopted a Greek orphan month ago.

“Let’s go. The sooner we are there, the faster we can go again.” James offered her a hand and pulled her up, when she took it. “We won’t linger. We are placing the homunculus in the crib, I’ll talk with them about the blood and really hope they will give me a chance to just take it from them, and you will use this time to do what you have to do.”

“I hate this”, Lily muttered.

“I know.” James pulled her into a hug and kissed her temple. “But you are doing what is necessary to protect our Tribe.”

Lily took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s just get it over with!” She took of in the direction of their front gate where Charles was waiting for them, without letting go of her husbands hand.

She had to side-along apparate both man, because neither knew the park near her sister’s house. This time around she had not bothered with muggle attire, but just in cast put an illusion over herself and the two men. Without a word, Charles took a seat on a nearby bench and produced a book out of a pocket, while Lily led James to the house of the Dursleys.

Petunia had to have waited right behind the door, because she opened it before James and Lily had even gotten near enough to reach for the doorbell. “You are late! - Don’t linger outside!”

Lily rolled her eyes, but stepped into the house without hesitation. “By not even two minutes.”

“Why did you bring _him_?”, Petunia asked, sneering in James direction, while closing the door behind them.

“Your husband is here, too, isn’t he?”, Lily replied with a look to Vernon Dursley, who stood in the door to the kitchen without saying a word. The whole corridor was interspersed with his angers.

“I let Lily come here alone once and never again. She was very upset, when she came home two days ago.” James regarded his sister-in-law with a dark look.

Petunia sniffed. “That’s hardly my fault. - Have you brought this thing?”

Lily nodded, while James took the homunculus out of the magical storage. Lily had not been able to look at it after its creation, because it looked so realistically like a dead child that it made her physically ill. She had spent half an hour cuddling her nephew, after they had created this thing.

Petunia took a step back from it. “I’m not touching that.”

Lily could feel a disgust in her sister, that was very similar to her own, but she knew the reason was the magic that had created the homunculus, not the similarity to her abandoned child.

“I can put it in your son’s crib”, James suggested.

“No”, Vernon butted in angrily. “I won’t have _you_ roam free in my house! Your wife can put it in the crib, she already knows where it is. And she better hurry up!”

Lily turned and mouthed a silent ‘Don’t!’ to her Sentinel, who was seething from anger over the way her brother-in-law had spoken about her. She took the fake body and rushed up the stairs. She suspected, it was not a good idea to let James and Vernon alone, so she hastily put the homunculus in the empty cot and activated the compulsion on it, that would urge anyone who saw it to take as little time as possible in processing and investigating its death, so it could be buried as soon as possible.

It could not have taken her a whole minute, until she came back down. Petunia hat taken several steps back, but Vernon was now standing besides her, red faced and his chest puffed out as if trying to intimidate James. “… should have smothered the little bitch in her sleep the moment they saw her red hair!”

Lily laughed humourlessly and startled all three of them, especially her Sentinel who was not far from drawing his wand on the muggle. “That’s a really antiquated prejudice, Vernon! - You were at the party my parents gave for my graduation and you and Petunia were the only ones there I didn’t know from Hogwarts. I hope you were sober enough to register that I was the only redhead there.”

“To judge someone of being a magician based on their hair colour is guaranteed to let you fail!”, James mocked, while Vernon sputtered without getting a word out.

“You have brought what you promised, now you should go”, Petunia said dismissively.

Lily sighed. “Are you sure that this is what you want, Petunia? You could come with us, you could be with your child.” She knew it was a futile question, but she felt she had to try.

“I don’t have a child any more. It’s laying dead in its bed and I’ll call the ambulance for it, as soon as you are gone!”, Petunia spat. “And it’s better this way.”

Lily’s shoulders saged in resignation. “Right, I thought so. - You should be careful with more children, the chance is high for them to be magical, too.”

“You weren’t listening to me at all, two days ago, were you? There won’t be any more children.” Petunia crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I went to a clinic and let it be taken care of permanently, as soon as the little freak had his first outburst.”

Lily flinched. She could not believe her sister had let herself be mutilated in this way for such a flimsy reason. She took a deep breath when James took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. It also reminded her, that there was another thing she needed to do.

“Before we go, there is something I need to ask you”, James began. “Lily said, you didn’t want your son to ever stand in from of your house in search for his birth parents.”

“That’s right! We want no one of your … _kind_ ever coming back here!”, Vernon roared.

Lily concentrated and reached out with her magic to both muggles. She was a little surprised that it was fairly easy to get into the heads of her sister and brother-in-law. She had read about mind arts, that it was complicated to reach into the memories of a muggle, because they had no inherent magic in them. Often it was even dangerous for the muggles mind to be manipulated magically, and that was the reason why only licences Oblivators of the Auror-force were aloud to interact with muggles in such a way.

But Lily was not using the magic those books spoke about, she was using the abilities that had come with her awakening. She had very little routine in her skills, but it would have to do. With their permission and only because her Sentinel had insisted on it, Lily had had a few opportunities to exercise her abilities on James, Sirius and Remus after Harry’s birth. And of the evening before, she had gotten a little bit of time to practice on the minds of Bathilda and Eugenia, because the Greek woman had been of the opinion, that Lily needed experience with a female mind, before she dove into her sister’s head.

“Believe me, we don’t want to be here either”, James replied to Vernon, sounding bored. “But at the moment there is still a blood connection between you and the child we took into our care. It’s not easy to break such a connection.”

“So?”, Vernon asked. “It’s your problem to teach him not to snoop where he isn’t wanted!”

Lily was tempted to let behind a great deal of damage in the mind of this deranged man, but she held herself back. She concentrated on the memories of both Petunia and Vernon about her visit two days ago, their discussions about it, and the visit now. She would take those memories with her, so not even the most talented Legilimens would be able to find a trace of it. On that occasion, Lily discovered one of her sisters fail-safes in form of her diary and she resolved herself to send a charm up the stairs upon leaving the house, so this book would be drenched in water and everything written in it would be destroyed.

“There is a possibility to severe this blood connection”, James continued. “Even if he tried to find his birth parents in the future, there wouldn’t be any trace left of them in his blood.”

“And what’s that to do with us?”, Vernon groused.

Lily but a trigger in the heads of both muggles, so they would entirely forget the exchange of their son with a fake body. As soon as Petunia called the ambulance, she would only remember that it was her child in the cot. She would not remember the visit of her sister, but be relieved to not have to wait for possibly more than two decades to get rid of the magic in her house.

“We would need your blood for this option”, James said, grinning provocatively.

“What?”, Vernon asked flabbergasted.

“You are out of your mind!”, Petunia screeched. “As if we would allow you to just take blood from us!”

Lily withdraw her magic from the heads of Petunia and Vernon and squeezed her husbands hand in a silent signal, that she had accomplished, what they had come for. She felt physically ill for the violation of another’s mind she just had to undertake.

“But it would ensure, that you would never be bothered by your son again”, James argued half-heartedly.

“OUT!”, Vernon bellowed. “I have had enough of your nonsense! Keep away from me and my wife! - If this brat ever steps foot in front of my house, I’ll kill him myself!”

James inclined his head. “As you wish.”

He drew his wand and two small vials out of a pocket of his robe and did not react to Vernon and Petunia staggering back hurriedly. With a muttered spell, both vials filled with blood and labelled themselves with a PD and a VD.

“That’s that. Thank you for your donation!” He bowed sarcastically.

“You will regret this!”, Petunia screamed out high pitched.

“You should be very careful with what you do, Petunia”, Lily said quietly. “To kill a magical child is one of the most severely punished crimes in our world. - If you draw any attention to the things that happened here today, you will be punished. You wouldn’t even get to see the repercussion of it if you revealed the magical world. - You want a simple, ordered life? Then you should keep your moth shut about our world!”

Lily did not wait for a reply before she left the house, dragging James with her. She stubbornly held onto her resolve until they had reached the park. There she leaned over at the side of the trail and vomited the rests of her breakfast in a bush.

James steadied her, by pressing a hand against her forehead and holding her hair back with the other. He was talking to her, but she was not aware enough to take in more of it then his soothing tone. When she was only dry heaving there appeared a hand in front of her, which was holding a glass of water.

“To rinse”, Charles said quietly, when she did not react to it.

“Thanks”, Lily muttered, still confused. But she took the glass and rinsed her mouth out, before James carefully helped her to stand up again.

“Do you feel better?”, her husband asked, clearly worried.

Lily nodded slowly. “Yes. I … I really hope I’ll never have to do something like this again. It was … to easy. No one should have those powers!”

“You could do a lot of good with those abilities, for people who need mental help”, Charles considered.

Lily huffed. “Sure, when I got their consent beforehand. But this … I basically mind-raped my sister and her husband to protect their child from them. That’s … Have you ever wondered what would happen, if a Guide used this power over others, just to further their own agenda?”

Charles shook his head. “That couldn’t happen. - There have been documented cases where Guides and Sentinels lost their abilities, because they violated their instinctual and magical imperative. Due to their own choices, as well as through being manipulated themselves.”

Lily frowned. “I thought there was something of a magical protection because of our abilities against being manipulated!”

“There is”, James replied. “But nothing is foolproof. It’s hard to influence us magically and there is nothing that’s guaranteed to work against a Sentinel and Guide, but some things do in single cases. And there are non-magical ways to manipulate humans, even those with special abilities.”

“So, if I had done this just to harm them, I would’ve risk to loose my abilities?”, Lily asked.

It was reassuring to know, that she could not go unchecked with these things, although she didn’t know how to trust an invisible magical barrier, from which she didn’t even know where it started.

“Not only your own, but James abilities, too.” Charles nodded gravely. “You are a bonded pair. What one of you does, impacts the other, one way or another, in good and in bad things.”

Lily sighed. “Okay, I can see how that would be more of a safeguard, than anything else.”

They were hard-wired to protect each other, even more than to protect their Tribe. There would never be anything she would do, if it endangered James in any way.

“Did things go as you had planned?”, Charles asked.

James nodded and gave his cousin the vials with the blood. “Tell Master Arzunk that I had to take the blood forcefully.”

“You didn’t try very hard to get them to agree.” Lily snorted.

“So?” James shrugged. “I don’t see why I should have to waste my time with them. - I asked, they said no, I took it. I could have taken it without asking.”

Charles took the vials and inspected the labels. “What does this mean?”

“Petunia and Vernon Dursley. In case you need to discern between the blood of the mother and the father”, James explained. “You should hurry, so you can start with the preparations. We’ll see you later.”

Charles nodded. “Take care of yourself!” Then he apparated away.

“Let’s sit down for awhile”, James suggested. “We have still a little bit of time.”

“I have taken her memory and I have destroyed her current diary in a way, that she will think, she wasn’t careful enough while watering her flowers. So she shouldn’t go through with her threat, but we should ask the goblins never the less to do something about her fail safes”, Lily said tiredly, sitting down beside her Sentinel on a bench nearby.

“You are right. I’ll talk with Master Arzunk about it before we begin with the adoption”, James assured her. He took her hands in his. “Are you sure you want to meet with Snape? You could just skip it!”

Lily sighed. “No, I can’t. - We talked about what Bathilda had said about connections in our Tribe, specifically connections from you and me to members of our Tribe.”

“That we feel a connection to the people we see as our Tribe.” James nodded.

“But it’s more than a feeling. I think it’s something like a magical tether. I felt the one I had with my sister snap when I talked to her two days ago. I didn’t even know it was there. And I didn’t really understand what had happened until earlier today, when I was mediating. - I felt protectiv of her for a long time, and I couldn’t explain it. I thought it was because the sudden death of our parents, because I began to feel it shortly after. But I awoke shortly after their death, too. I came to the conclusion, that it was me being a Guide and building these connections … these tethers to my Tribe.”

“What’s that to do with Snape?”, James asked.

Lily took a shuddering breath. “As I said yesterday, I feel a very similar connection to him. And I think, you do too, to Peter.”

“Peter I understand”, James said frowning. “It took me awhile after awakening to detect his duplicity. But you hadn’t been friends with Snape for years, when you awoke!”

“Yesterday, while you and Sirius visited Lord Black, Charles spoke with me about Shiledbrothers. About the pledge he took earlier in the day. He told me, those kinds of connections as well as the tribal connections, are often formed long before the awakening of the Sentinel and Guide. Because our magic was already there, we just couldn’t use it.” Lily bit on her lip. “I formed this connections to Severus many years ago. Probably even before we went to Hogwarts. And you to Peter. - And those connections will stand until they refuse point blank to be part of our Tribe.”

James furrowed his brows. “You haven’t told you sister of our Tribe, have you? How could she refuse to be part of it?”

Lily shrugged. “She told me basically to not bother her with my problems and that she didn’t want to know anything about my life. That did the trick. - I’m pretty sure, we won’t have to even ask Severus or Peter if they would like to come with us. Severus will dismiss our bond without even knowing it exists and that will be enough.”

“He has dismissed our relationship more than once in the last years. Plenty of opportunities to severe this connection”, James said caustically.

“ _We_ weren’t aware of the connections we had forged. So I wasn’t registering it as him dismissing the foundation of our Tribe”, Lily replied. “I think that is a very crucial point in all this.”

“You took all this out of your mediation?”, James asked.

Lily nodded. “I concentrated a lot on the connections to the rest of the Tribe. I searched them out and tried to analyse them. - You remember the tether we both felt to Harry in the instant he was borne? We had thought it odd, because we had never heard of anything like this. And you speculated it had something to do with my maturation. But I think it was just our tribal connection to him. It snapped into place stronger than the others were at this time, because he is our son. For Bathilda it came slowly over time, so it wasn’t as intense. And all the others we build long before we awoke, so we weren’t able to feel them build.”

James sighed. “That does make me feel a little bit better abut the tether to Harry.”

“You should join me sometime in mediation”, Lily suggested.

“I wouldn’t have accomplished a meditative state in the last few days. But I’ll try, as soon as we have settled down”, James promised. “You’ll be careful with Snape, alright?”

“Severus is not the one prone to panic and thoughtless, panic induced reactions”, Lily replied. “I think you have to be a lot more careful than I!”

“I promise you, I’ll take care of myself.” James raised her hand to his mouth to kiss the back of it. “We’ll meet back at our house afterwards, so we can close up the wards?”

Lily smiled. “Yes. And then we can go and witness Charles and Eugenia adopt their son. I’m really exited for all three of them! - I can’t wait to learn which name they have chosen for him!”


	11. Chapter 11

James had written a letter to Peter on the day before, to ask if the other man could meet with him at two in the afternoon. The reply had been short, but affirmative, even so Peter had complained that he would have to leave work early.

Peter lived in the magical district right behind Diagon Alley in a small and a little uncomfortable flat. He had turned down every single offer from Sirius and James to find him something a little nicer, that he could still pay with his ministry pay check.

“H-hello, James!” Peter smiled brightly, when he opened the door to his flat, but his nervousness lay sick and sweet in the air. “Come i-in, come in. I was s-surprised, that you wanted to visit. I-I would have come to you!”

“Sometime I have to get out of this house, you now?”, James replied with faked carelessness. “For something other than work, I mean.”

Peter nodded and set down at the small table in his kitchen, where he had led James to. “I-It’s really re-restricting. Your situation.”

James sighed and took the other chair. “And it will get worse.”

He had decided, just minutes before he apparated to Peter’s flat, to test the other man. He needed to know if their friendship had just fallen away in the wake of their growing distance, or if he actually needed to regard Peter as an enemy.

Peter frowned. “How?”

“Dumbledore visited us two days ago”, James explained. “We had a lot to prepare since then. It’s a mess. I send my resignation to the Aurors this morning.”

“That w-was your d-dream!”, Peter said surprised. “You haven’t sp-spoken of anything else since … th-third or four-fourth year.”

“It seems, the dark bastard” - Peter flinched. - “is planing an attack against Lily and me”, James replied.

“R-really?” Peter tried to convey surprise, but nothing in his heartbeat or his voice spoke of real surprise.

James continued: “I have to be with my … family to protect them.”

When Sirius had stumbled on the evening before over the use of Tribe instead of family, James had found it amusing. To nearly make this mistake himself was not so amusing any more. Peter was the last person he would want to trust with this secret.

“O-of course.” Peter nodded vigorously.

James smiled a little bit sad. “Dumbledore thinks, we need more protection. He wants to come back tomorrow and cast the Fidelius. For it to be affective, I won’t be able to leave the house much any more.”

“A-and Sirius will be your Se-secret Ke-keeper, of cou-cours?”, Peter asked.

“That was my first thought, too.” James nodded. “But Sirius has argued that it would be to obvious. Everyone knows we are basically brothers. Everyone would first look at him, when trying to find me. - So, we discussed who the best alternative was.”

“A-and who …” Peter blinked rapidly. “Is th-that the reason, whey you c-came to visit?” His heart beat sped up and James could detect a tone in his voice he knew to be excitement.

James smiled and hoped it would look reassuring. “Yes. Besides Sirius, Remus and you are my next choices of course. We may have grown distant since graduation, but you’re still one of my best friends, right? And Remus…” He shrugged helplessly.

“O-of course we are fr-friends!” Peter smiled and it was a little bit too much. “And I under-understand about Remus. It i-is hard t-to trust in theses ti-times.”

James sighed in faked frustration. “It really is! I would like to trust him, but with his … affliction … It seems risky, you know?”

That was the thought, Dumbledore had planted in Sirius head about their friend. It rankled to have to repeat it. It spoke of prejudice against magical creatures that James just did not have in himself.

Peter nodded. “Of c-course.”

“So … would you be willing to be the Secret Keeper for me and my family?”, James asked directly.

“I-it will be my ho-honour!”

Peter smiled brightly, but for a moment there darted something like triumph and malicious joy over his face. James was sure he would have missed it if he had hat had to take a class in the Academy to learn to detect micro expressions.

Other than that, he could feel it in the bond with Peter. After his discussion with Lily in the park, he had taken five more minutes after she had left for her meeting with Snape to get a hold of this tether she had talked about. He had taken the tether to his son as guidance and from there, it had been easy to find the others.

His bond to Peter was frying at the edges and he got a deep, uncomfortable warning from it that resonated somewhere in his emotional landscape as betrayal. There was not a lot of doubt any more that Peter himself was a danger to his Tribe. And yet, the bond still had not been broken entirely.

“Wh-when will Dum-Dumbledo-dore cast the Fidelius?”, Peter asked exited. “It will be Dum-Dum-Dumbledore, right? A-and you proba-bably shouldn’t t-take to much t-time.”

“Tomorrow. Sometime in the afternoon.” James frowned. “To tell the truth, Dumbledore didn’t tell a specific time. And we didn’t remember to ask.”

It was a startling truth, especially as no one in the Tribe had even thought about it in the last few days. They had been so distracted with their own preparations, that no one had thought about the details of Dumbledore’s plan, that they had so easily dismissed.

“I can leave wo-work early once, that’s-s no pro-problem!”, Peter assured, so different to the tone of his letter from the day before. “I’ll w-work t-till my lunch break aa-nd then co-come to you, al-alright?”

“That sounds like a good plan.” James sighed deeply. “I never understood, why we grew so distant after our graduation. I tried really hard to keep all three of you near me. And with Sirius it was easy, because we were both at the Academy. But you and Remus … Every time I invited you or tried to plan some activities together, one or both of you found a reason not to come.”

The reason for Remus reluctance had been easily discovered and overcome. It had been Dumbledore, who had subtly and over their whole last year in Hogwarts put the idea in his head, that a friendship to a werewolf outside of school would be a risk for Remus’ friends. For a long time Remus had tried to dismiss these hints, but in the end they had taken a hold in his thoughts. Sirius, James and Lily had been very quick in putting a stop to those ridiculous ideas, after they had learned about them.

In spite of what his senses had told him about Peter, James had tried hard to get through to the smaller man. The whole of his seventh year James had split his time between perusing Lily and repairing his friendship with Peter. But the later of those two things had not gotten him anywhere. He still did not know the reason of it. And the distance between them had grown rapidly after they had left school.

Peter averted his gaze nervously. “It w-wasn’t just af-after grad-uation, you kn-know.”

“So, what was it?”, James asked curious.

Peter shrugged. “Y-you were sud-suddenly very in-vested in L-Lily. There ww-asn’t a lot o-of room for your old fr-friends. And if there w-was … she was there, t-too.”

James frowned. “You never told me you had a Problem with Lily.”

“I wasn’t the oo-ne ha-having a prob-lem”, Peter muttered darkly.

James sighed, but he could not even contradict that. Though it was not really an explanation either, because Peters behaviour had changed long before Lily had become such a permanent fixture in their group.

“You could … you should have ask me to help with this situation”, James said quietly. “I just thought you needed a little bit of time to get to know each other.”

“A-and I thought she w-was just a … a fling”, Peter replied, more strongly than he had intended, judging by his face.

James blew out a breath. “Really?”

“I m-mean, she doesn’t re-really fit into the-the social standing of y-your family, right?” Peter had furrowed his brows, but was still evading his gaze. “You sh-should have taken more c-care of the sort of woman you chose f-for a wife.”

James leaned forward, irritated. “What are you even talking about?”

“Don’t y-you want to go into po-politics, when you are old enough?”, Peter asked. “The men, which y-you will be dealing with then, will c-care about the sort of w-wife you chose.”

“And what _sort_ is Lily?”, James asked tense.

Peter flinched back under his tone. “It’s not … I don’t mean it de-demeaning. But you kn-know what I mean.”

“I don’t think I know that”, James replied darkly. “Lily is a brilliant witch. And thoughtful and funny and passionate.”

“But n-not really part of our w-world, right?”

“How can she not be part of our world?”, James asked, bordering on furious. “She is right here living a very magical life with me and our son!”

Peter crossed his arms in front of chest. “Do I really need to sp-spell it out?”

“I think you should”, James spat.

He was not missing, that Peter’s stutter was getting less and less prominent the more agitated he got. It was odd, because normally it was the other way around, but he would have to think about it later.

“No one in our group has ever represented this kind of opinion!”, he continued.

“That’s rewriting h-history. I remem-member very thorough dis-discussions about how muggleborns weren’t able to ed-educate themselves about the world they tried to insert themselves in!”, Peter replied hotly.

James shook his head. “We discussed their lag of opportunity to do so, not their lack of willingness to do so!”

“You changed your t-tone in that in our last two school years.” Peter shrugged. “I’m sure it was just easier to ac-accomplish with misremembering the opinions y-you had before that!”

“That’s really not what happened!”, James insisted.

But if Peter had had a change of mind around this time, it could very well be that he was the one misremembering their earlier discussions. Or maybe they had regarded these discussions from the very beginning from two very different points of view and totally missed, that they were not even remotely on the same track.

“She will never be able t-to understand our traditions fu-fully. And you made the life of y-your son a hard one before he was even born”, Peter insisted. “And you know this v-very well. You are just ig-ignoring it, because you’re … pussy blind.”

James snorted unwillingly about the choice of word. “I’m really not. - You didn’t even talk to me about your so called doubts when I was planning my marriage. And surprisingly you were there for a lot of it.”

Peter shrugged. “You just didn’t listen when I tried to tell you, you shouldn’t marry a mud… muggleborn.”

And there was the last blow to severe the tether between Peter and the Tribe.

James crossed his arms and let his wand drop out of its holster, very careful about concealing this move from the other man. He suspected that Peter would try to bold very soon. “So, did you find friends who are listening better to you after school?”

Peter scowled. “How should I find new friends? Not e-everyone can live of of an inheritance. Or wants to live off of the charity of a-a friends inheritance!”

James raised an eyebrow sceptically. “If Remus would just take the money I want to give him he wouldn’t have to live in this hovel he calls home.” And it was a really good thing that that would finally find an end. “I offered you a loan for an apprenticeship, too. You were more vocal in shutting me down than even Remus was.”

“The last thing I would want was being indebted to you!”, Peter growled.

“You can’t resent me for not helping you, if you don’t actually want any help!”, James argued exaggerated.

Peter huffed. “It’s just all more of the same, right? - You lording your wealth in money and family over us and expecting us to be thankful for the breadcrumbs you are throwing at us.”

James did not know what to say or even what to think. He had no clue where this resentment was coming from or how long it had been there. But Peter had thrown himself in a rant and James did not need to find a response.

If he was lucky and with the mood Peter was suddenly in, the smaller man would spill whatever grievance he thought he had. When Peter began to prattle, he tended to lose track of the things he should better keep to himself.

“Sirius fell for it, of course. But then, he was following you like a lovesick puppy from the very start. You convinced him to go against his family in the half day it took to reach Hogwarts for the first time.” Peter’s agitated rocking legs made the whole table between them shake.

“Sirius had made this decision before we even met at the train!”, James replied quietly.

“Oh yes, because his family was oh so bad!” Peter laughed disparaging. “We all had bad families, bad parents. Even your parents weren’t saints in any way, they just did a better job of covering it up than others. - Doesn’t mean anyone should just turn on their family. Sirius will regret this, and soon. And it will be your fault for putting him in this position!”

James frowned. “How will he regret it? He is still the heir.”

There was no point in discussing Sirius history, especially as Peter seemed to be set in the picture he had of their time at Hogwarts. But as long as he was willing to talk so freely, James would try to get information out of him.

“He thinks so because he wasn’t informed otherwise!” Peter shook his head. “And I really have no idea why he still thinks he would be heir after betraying his family.”

James hummed, not wanting to comment this. Peter did not came from the main-line of an old family, like he and Sirius did. So he had no idea about the magic, that was part of their situation. If Arcturus Black had made someone else his heir, Sirius would have felt it immediately. But Peter could not know that, as they had never discussed it with him.

“I really didn’t need to put more burden on myself than there already was in Hogwarts. It would have been easier if the damn hat would have put me in another house!”, Peter muttered, losing some of his agitation.

James took a deep breath. “It was a burden to be friends with us?”

Peter huffed. “To play this game was the only way to survive Hogwarts, right? I was stuck in the same room with you, I really couldn’t risk being chosen as your next target!”

“Target?”, James inquired tonelessly.

“Snape could hide in Slytherin. I wouldn’t have been able to hide anywhere!”, Peter said indignant.

James snorted. “Snape gave as good has he got!”

He put the doubts that where rising in him somewhere in a corner in his mind, to digest them at a later time. He knew very well, that he had crossed the line to being a bully more than once in his early years at school. But there had never been malicious intent – expect for his dealings with Snape – and he had gotten a hold of himself after third year – again, expect for his dealings with Snape.

He really did not like the implication, that Peter had felt compelled into being part of their little group. And neither, that he had never gotten a clue about those feelings in the smaller man. James remembered the lecture of McGonagall prior to their sorting very well and he had taken it to his heart. On the evening of their sorting, when he had found himself in a room with Sirius, Remus and Peter, James had decided to make those boys to his family. And he had lived by this decision religiously even after Hogwarts.

Peter shook his head. “You are telling yourself a lot of lies, James.”

James blew out a breath. He would deal with his feelings of having failed and his regrets later. “So, you are sitting on a lot of resentment for me. It wouldn’t be the best choice to make you my Secret Keeper in the end, would it?”

He saw the exact moment in which Peter recognized his mistake in being as open has he had been in the last few minutes.

“That’s not…” Peter fidgeted and laughed nervously. “I’m not re-resenting you! Regardless how it s-started, I had a lot of t-time to get to know you as re-real friend, right?”

James sighed, not at all surprised about the return of the stutter. “What’s your plan?”

Peter frowned. “I-I don’t kn-know what you mean.” His eyes were darting through the kitchen, as if he was searching for something.

“I think you aren’t intending to keep the secret”, James replied. “I think, you’re seeing a chance in it in getting even with me, for those imagined things you are resenting me for.”

Peter shook his head fiercely. “O-of course no-not! I w-would never do such a th-thing. It wou-would be my ho-honour to pro-tect you, as I said.”

James hummed. “Your honour to betray me.”

Peter flinched. “No, that’s not…” He trailed of, his search getting as erratic as it could without him jumping up from his chair.

“If you are searching for your wand, you left it on the dresser in the corridor”, James said calmly.

Peters eyes snapped to him. “What?”

“You really shouldn’t leave your wand laying around somewhere.” James sighed. “Especially if you invite someone into your home you are not trusting or planing to betray. Or both, as the case may be.”

It was a testament of how sheltered Peter really was in spite of the developments of the last years. He had been sloppy with his wand from the very beginning. He regarded it as a tool, but not as a protection and had often forgotten to take it with him even in Hogwarts. James could not remember how often they had hurried back to their dorm so Peter could fetch his wand before the next class started.

Normally James would have pointed it out to Peter to keep his wand on his person even in his own home. But with the suspicions that had accompanied him on this visit, it had been a relieve to see it outside of Peters reach. Of course he had not let it lay there, open and easy to reach. Peter’s wand was in a pocket of James robes, but the smaller man did not need to know this.

“And if you really plan to attack me in this very moment, you should remember, that I have nearly finished my training as an Auror”, James continued. “I really don’t want to fight you, Peter.”

“You never had the intention to make me Secret Keeper from the start!”, Peter accused him.

James shrugged. “True. As we are not intending to go with Dumbledore’s crazy plan for the Fidelius, there isn’t even a need for a Secret Keeper. - Nevertheless, I did want to know if I could still trust you, even a little bit.”

“You haven’t changed a bit since school!”, Peter muttered darkly. His eyes darted to the door to the corridor, but James sat between him and his goal.

“And you haven’t answered my question”, James replied. “Are you planing to go directly to the dark bastard” - Peter flinched again. - “or do you have some friends you are using as a go between?”

Peter frowned, his gaze still locked on the door in James back. “You h-have no idea what you are t-talking about. You wouldn’t be so cal-callous in dispar-aging his name, if you had ever stood in front of him!”

James snorted. “He is disparaging his name all on his own with his little taboo. And I have no interest whatsoever to ever meet him expect on a battlefield. And then I would kill him. - But that did answer my question, didn’t it?”

“Your arrogance will see you killed!”, Peter snapped. “He will know no mercy with you. And he is to powerful for you to come even near defeating him!”

“Do you know why he is targeting us?”, James asked.

“You don’t th-think your dis-re-respect for our society is enough?”, Peter asked.

And than he seemed to just vanish.

James let the door behind him slam shut with a loud bang, before he had even left his own chair. For Peter to change into his animagius form was not unexpected at all. To get a proper aim on a rat, especially in their home turf, could be a complicated matter.

Despite the closed door, Peter somehow got into the corridor before James was able to cast a detection for the rat. James should have probably expected some kind of holes in the walls Peter could use in his much smaller form. There was clatter outside in the corridor, as Peter must have miscalculated the space he needed for the transformation back into human form.

James ripped open the door and his Incarcerous met Peter in the very moment the smaller man recognized that his wand was not where James had told him it would be. He followed it with an anti-animagus-curse, that he wove into Peters clothes, so it would surround him until he got rid of those.

“Do you really think I would just tell you where your wand is, if I have to expect an attack from you?”, James asked condescending. He secured the ropes, that had wound themselves around Peter with a silent sticking charm.

Peter glared at him silently.

“I really wish, you hadn’t chosen this path”, James muttered.

He ripped open the left arm of Peter’s robe and was not surprised at all to find the Dark Mark there. They had suspected it for month and yet it hurt more than anything else that had happened in the last half hour.

James sighed. “I could have lived with it, if we had just grown distant. Those things happen, right? But I’ll never forget or forgive, that you tried to betray us!”

“What’s y-your plan th-than?”, Peter spat furious.

James sighed. “I’ll give my former colleagues a hint, that they can find you here, incarcerated and bearing the Dark Mark.” In two or three hours, when he could be sure, that they were nearly out of the country.

“It’s not for-forbidden”, Peter replied snooty. “They’ll search for y-you soon enough for attacking me without cause!”

“It’s not forbidden, yet.” James smiled malicious. “I’m sure it will be someday. And there are those, who are preparing for this time. To have documentation of you following the dark bastard” - And another time, Peter flinched. - “will be really bad for you then. - And for me being arrested for attacking you, you can try but you won’t get very far, I assure you. It’s not very clear to tell who attacked who anyway. And furthermore, I’m a future peer of the realm, while you are a lowly ministry employee. I don’t like how these things work, but for the moment the Aurors won’t even open a case file under these circumstances.”

“You’ll regret this. Someday soon, you will wish you had followed my Lord, too! He will conquer England and than the world! And I’ll stand right at his side!”

James sighed. “I’m sure that’s what he would like to belief. - I really wish you will get a wake up call before he gets you killed!” He went back into the kitchen to place Peters wand on the table and ignored Peters loud protests that were turning quickly in desperate pleas.

“That’s good bye than, Peter. - Don’t ever come near my family again. And that includes Sirius and Remus!”

With those words James left the flat and with it he left behind all hope he had still hold onto, to someday reconcile with Peter.


	12. Chapter 12

Lily stopped right out of sight from the hidden bench behind the run down playground. She had asked Severus to meet her here, because it held sentimental value for both of them. Before they had gone to Hogwarts, they had spent a lot of time here because no one else ever came here. They had used this place to explore the magic they already could control.

There were so many regrets in her about the whole situation with Severus. There had been so many instances, where Severus would just have needed the right kind of help to steer him away from the path he had eventually taken.

She recognized that she had not been able to do anything, being only a child herself at the time. But she really wished, there would have been someone who could have taken a role in Severus life, like James parents had done it for Sirius or their Tribe was doing it for Charles’ and Eugenia’s future son.

Lily took a deep breath, before she took the last few steps to the bench. Severus was already waiting for her and he jumped up as soon as he saw her. Before she could even react, she found herself in a tight hug by her old friend.

“I’m so glad that you asked to see me, Lily! I’m so worried about you!”

Lily sighed and returned the hug half-heartedly. “There is no reason to worry.”

Severus grabbed her shoulders and took a step back. “Didn’t Dumbledore speak to you? - I went to him, as soon as I learned of the danger to you!”

“He did warn us”, Lily said slowly.

She had not expected to find Dumbledore’s spy in Severus. Or that he would so willingly just tell it to her. One would think Severus would be very careful with such an information. Voldemort did not know any mercy with traitors, that was widely known.

She cocked her head. “Do you know why the dark bastard is targeting my son of all people?”

Severus blinked, hesitating. “I … What did Dumbledore tell you?”

“Only that supposedly there is a prophecy and it could mean Frank’s and Alice’ son or our son. But he wouldn’t tell us the prophecy.” She couldn’t hold the disdain for the whole idea out of her voice.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Severus averted his eyes. “If I had known it would lead to _you_ being targeted… I would have never told him of what I heard! I would have rather oblivated myself, you have to believe me!”

Lily took a step back, breaking his hold on her shoulders, and crossed her arms in front of her defensively. “Tell me what you heard!” She felt betrayed and flabbergasted by his revelation.

Severus shook his head. “It was only the first part. And Dumbledore let me swear, when I came to him in the beginning of the year, that I wouldn’t tell anyone what I had heard!”

“Was it a magical vow?”, Lily asked.

“No, but…”

“So, there is no problem in you telling me!”, Lily insisted.

“Why do you need to know it?”, Severus asked irritated. “It wouldn’t change anything!”

“True”, Lily agreed. “Other than I wouldn’t be in the dark any more about the reason, why my life is in peril! What reason is there for me not to know it?”

Severus opened his mouthed, but closed it again without saying anything.

“I can’t imagine, that you would trust Dumbledore just implicitly”, Lily said. “I never understood why he wouldn’t tell us and the Longbottoms what this prophecy was about.” She was tired of these manipulations and on decisions being made for her.

“He doesn’t want it spread widely”, Severus replied petulantly. “If everybody knew about it, there wouldn’t be only the Dark Lord targeting you!”

“And you think I’ll just tell it to anyone?” Lily huffed.

“Who knows what crazy ideas Potter would get. Being the parent of a prophetised child would be right up his alley of desirable fame, wouldn’t it?”, Severus spat.

Lily decided to ignore the jab against her husband, even so it was infuriating. “Tell me what you heard of the prophecy!” When Severus still hesitated, she continued: “Or I can just go. There is no reason to speak with you if you can’t be truthful with me!”

“No, don’t…” Severus reached with a hand towards her, but Lily took another step back, so he couldn’t take a hold of her. “Please, don’t go!”

“Then tell me!”, she insisted.

“I…” Severus closed his eyes and sighed. “Okay. The … The part I heard was: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…_ ” (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37, J.K.Rowling)

Lily huffed incredulous. “And your oh so great dark bastard took this to mean it could be only one of two boys? Really? That’s crazy!”

She hold up her hands, when Severus started to speak. “No, let me talk. - This seventh month thing isn’t very clear, to begin with. Does it really mean July, or September, as the literal ‘septimus’ and therefore seventh month? And even if July, why must it be in the year after this crap was spoken? Or does it mean the seventh month beginning from the time this prophecy was spoken? That happened in the end of November, right? So it could easily be the end of June.”

“Prophecies are very delicate…”, Severus began.

Lily interrupted him exaggerated: “Yes, yes, they are delicate and never easily understood. - But wouldn’t that mean, the dark bastard has mostly likely made a mistake in going for the most obvious solution? Especially as he only knows part of it.” She snorted. “Those lines don’t even hint at it being a boy, it could be a girl. Or not a human at all. - Or, it could have been borne as from bearing, not born as in someone is given life. That would open up a whole lot of other possibilities! - And that’s just what I can think about on the top of my head!”

Severus crossed his arms in front of his chest. “When I spoke with Dumbledore in January, he implied that there was spoken of a ‘he’ in the rest.”

“So what?” Lily huffed again. “There are plenty of weapons in our history, that are associated as being male or female. No reason that there couldn’t have been brought a weapon to England at the end of whatever seventh month was meant!”

“All of that doesn’t matter! I already tried to speak with the Dark Lord!”, Severus said desperately. “But there is no arguing with him. I have told him more than once that Potter’s brat wasn’t even meant to be born so late! But he doesn’t listen. He won’t take any risks!”

Lily was not surprised to feel her tether to Severus snap in the very moment he denied her son to actually be hers. But she was so distracted, that she could barely take note of it. “Harry came two weeks early, not late!” The words came out of her mouth, even so she knew that Severus was not speaking about that.

He snorted. “Oh come on, don’t play dumb with me, Lily! I know that Potter got you pregnant to pressure you into this sham of a marriage.”

“We had been married for month when I got pregnant!”, Lily reminded him.

“Yeah, I’m sure Potter told you only very old families knew of those potions and charms to put a pregnancy into stasis. But everyone who has so much as looked into the vague direction of healing for a career, knows of them.”

Lily could not help but laugh about the absurdity of this accusation. “That’s insane!”

“No.” Severus shook is head. “What’s insane is that you fell for his crap. I can just imagine, how he came blundering with all his pureblood entitlement and nearly forgotten laws, to tell you that you had no other choice but to marry him now that you where bearing his heir. And to spare you the disgrace of a pregnancy that most would perceive as you trying to trap a future peer of the realm in a marriage, you would have of course put it into stasis for a few month.”

Lily shook her head incredulously. “I don’t even know where you got this crazy idea from!”

“I just had to look at the facts, to see what happened!” Severus began to walk up and down agitated. “Potter went after you to hurt me and you just fell for it.”

Lily sighed. “It’s all about you, right.”

“For Potter, of course it is! I hurt his pride before we even reached Hogwarts for the first time and he holds a grudge for the rest of his life!” Severus threw her a heated gaze. “He saw I was friends with you and tried everything to destroy our friendship!”

“James didn’t destroy our friendship.” Lily shook her head wearily. “We did that all on our own. You with following those new friends of yours from Slytherin, who detested me for what my parents were. And I, because I couldn’t cope with the things you were throwing at me, even though I knew you were just lashing out at me in your own hurt.”

Lily drew in a deep breath. “And I wanted to apologize for my part in this. After that horrible argument in fifth year I should have at least listened to you, and not ignored you for the most part of a year. - I was so hurt when you told me by this horrible name. I’d never expected you of all people to call me that!”

It was one of those things she regretted the most in her relationship with Severus. For years she had defended him against her other friends and it had felt like he had thrown it all back in her face in this moment. But even then she had known of his horrible circumstances at home and his really bad situation in Hogwarts. None of these things were excuses, but in retrospect she thought that it had been wrong to just shut him out in her hurt. Her reaction had just solidified the path he had started to walk at this time.

Severus stopped abruptly mid stride, and turned to her. “This whole situation was Potter’s fault, too. You do remember that, right?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Your fury was James fault, that much is right. But what you said, that was your own decision. And probably the influence of the people you were spending more and more time with.”

“My associates are still better than Potter and his gang!”, Severus said agitated. “You know he was only interested in you after he learned that I love you, and that I had made plans to reconcile with you. He destroyed those plans for both of us!”

“You don’t love me, Severus.” Lily regarded him with a weary look. “You are obsessed. And I’m not even sure if you are obsessed with me or with the pure idea of loving me.”

She could not see anything in this man that remained from the boy she had once known as her best friend. It broke her heart to see him so changed and maniac. Maybe James did have a point in worrying about this meeting in the end.

“You are confusing me with your husband!”, Severus snapped. “Where is he, anyway? Did he really let you go alone without protection in a time like this?”

“I convinced James that you weren’t a threat for me. Because I really believed it. He is with Peter at the moment, in preparation for the changes in our protection we can undertake thanks to your warning.”

It was purposefully misleading, how she said that. If they would really plan to go with Dumbledore’s suggestion, then Lily would have never dared to tell Severus of this, especially not after the last few minutes. But she had a feeling that Severus reaction would be telling.

And it was. He recoiled a little, and than sneered in fury that had another quality to it than the fury she had felt previously from him against James. “You are trusting Pettigrew with your security?”

“He is one James best friends”, Lily reminded.

“Sure.” For a moment, it seemed as if Severus wanted to say more, but in the end he refrained. He started to pace again. “I could protect you.”

Lily was not sure, if he had said that sunken in thoughts to himself or to her. “You could protect my family? How?”

Severus shook his head. “Not Potter and his brat. But you, Lily. I could protect you from Potter and the changes that are coming.”

“You expect me to just leave my child?”, Lily asked disbelievingly.

“Do you want to die for Potter’s brat? Because that’s what will happen, you know?” Severus was nearly screaming. “What ever you try, he will come and find you! And he’ll kill you, if you stand between him and his goal.”

“You think Peter will betray us. But you wouldn’t tell me, because secretly that’s exactly what you want. You don’t care a bit for my family!” Lily closed her eyes for just a fraction of a second and took a deep breath. “You don’t care if my son dies, or if my husband dies.”

“And why should I?”, Severus asked. “Both of those were pressured onto you, even if you insist to deny it. Your life could be so much better without those burdens.”

“My son is not a burden!”, Lily snapped, at the end of her rope.

“If it weren’t for this brat your life wouldn’t be in danger!”, Snape reminded her.

Lily scowled. “No. If it weren’t for a crazy dark wizard my son wouldn’t be in danger, and neither would I. Harry doesn’t bear any fault for this situation. He is a toddler. He can barely speak more than three words. How could he be in fault for anything?”

“It’s his existence that put you in the way of the Dark Lord!”, Severus insisted.

“I did this all on my own”, Lily replied, even though she was not sure why she was still having this discussion. “I joined the Order of the Phoenix of my own free will. James didn’t want to join, but I made him join. - And I started the information campaign that informs about his crimes, because our ministry isn’t able to do it. - And I made the decision to draw my wand against his men when they thought to attack a bunch of mugglebornes and their parents outside of the Leaky Cauldron in the summer after our graduation.”

That had been a very stupid decision on her part and all her friends, but especially James, had been so angry at her. She had been alone against five dark-robed men with white masks in the beginning. It had only been their surprise at being intercepted that had helped her hold them back long enough to give a few of those kids the opportunity to run back into the pub and ask for help. James, Sirius, the host Tom and half a dozen other customers had come to her aid immediately. They all had scolded her, even those she had never seen before or again after that. But even now she would not know any other way to protect these children.

“You should have just kept your head down!” Severus came to stand in front of her. “I have a secure enough position that I can protect you, if you come with me! My Lord already promised me to not harm you if you wouldn’t stand in his way!”

“You disgust me!”, Lily spat. “Do you really think it all right to sacrifice a child? - And how would you plan to keep me safe? Those people you have aligned yourself with want to kill people like myself!”

“You would have to settle for certain limitations”, Severus confessed. “But you would live. Isn’t that enough?”

“No, it’s really not”, Lily replied. “I won’t ever leave my son or sacrifice him. And neither will I leave my husband. - We have a magical marriage, Severus. We have a magical bond connecting us. If there was any truth in your suspicion, that wouldn’t be possible. - I won’t ever leave the man I love.”

Severus scoffed. “I’m sure, one can find a lot of ways to mimic such a bond in Potter’s library. And this beast he holds as a pet is good enough with books to find them for him.”

Lily took several steps back, more appalled and disgusted by him than she had ever been before. “That’s it. This discussion leads to nothing.”

“It leads to nothing, because you don’t want to listen to me!”, Severus bellowed.

“No. You are crazy, Severus, that’s the problem. You have completely lost the plot!” Lily took a deep breath. “I wanted to say good bye and had hoped to leave on better terms. But I see it’s futile.”

“Don’t go!” Severus grabbed for her arm and he was a lot quicker than she had anticipated.

“Let go of me”, Lily growled.

He ignored her. “You’ll die, why can’t you understand this? There is no hiding from the Dark Lord! Especially if you trust someone like Pettigrew with your safety!”

“Have you seen him, when you met with the other Death Eaters?”, Lily asked.

“I’m no Death Eater”, Severus spat. “My Lord doesn’t ask those things of me. I couldn’t maintain my abilities with brewing if he did.”

Lily grabbed for his arm with her free hand and ripped his sleeve back, not surprised at all at the dark tattoo of a skull with a snake. “This thing says otherwise!”

“That has nothing to do with being a Death Eater. You have no idea how our organisation is structured.” Severus did not let go of her, but hastily put his sleeve back in place.

“You haven’t answered my question. Is Peter one of you?”

“Yes he is, so what?” Severus shrugged. “As if Potter would believe you, if you told him that. He won’t believe it, even when Pettigrew will stand right behind our Lord in the moment of Potter’s death.”

“Do you really think I would have told you about James visiting Peter, if it was in any way relevant? With knowing that you will probably report to the dark bastard and Dumbledore?”, Lily asked, mocking.

“It doesn’t matter in the end who you choose as Secret Keeper. It will delay the inevitable only for days if not just hours!”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “And how would you know we are choosing the Fidelius charm?”

Sever shrugged, searching to meet her eyes with his. “It’s Dumbledore’s favourite. That part is not a secret at all.”

Lily nodded. “And that is one of many reasons, why we are not going with it. - I won’t die. My son won’t die, my husband won’t die. Your oh so fearsome Lord won’t be able to find us.”

“What are you doing instead?”, Severus asked.

“We are leaving.” Lily blinked, and then she tagged on to throw him of their trail: “Tomorrow.” Her thoughts were a little foggy and she could not quite explain to herself, why she should tell him so much. Or why she was even still talking to him.

In the next moment she registered the eye contact between her and Severus. Outraged she fisted her free hand and threw it against his chin. Lily was sure it was more surprise than hurt, that let him stagger back and fall down on his ass.

She drew her wand at him, before he had enough time to even register what had happened. “Don’t you dare to stand up!” She raised her hand to the necklace, that James had made into a portkey for her. She really had not expected to need it.

“Lily, I’m sorry!”, Severus stammered. “I just … All I want is to protect you!”

“No, you are neither sorry nor do you want to protect me!” Lily laughed humourlessly. “You want to subdue me, to own me. There is nothing like real love or worry in you for me. And I really wished I had recognized that long ago.”

“Please, Lily…”

“Shut up! I’m really not interested in anything you have to say any more! You just tried to violate my mind, Snape! That’s akin to rape!” She very deliberate used his last name and it was satisfying to see him flinch. “If there is still anything left of our friendship in you, you’ll keep quiet until we are gone!”

Lily did not give him an opportunity to answer her, before she stunned him for good measure and activated the portkey. She stepped inside the wards of her soon to be abandoned home and in their security she fell to her knees. She rested her forehead in the grass, bracing her arms against the ground beside her head, and let go of the sob she had held back during those last words to Severus.

She had not expected any of these things that had happened. She had not thought this meeting would be easy in any way, but she had thought she knew Severus better than that. She had hold onto her memories of the boy, he probably had not been for many years. It hurt so much to recognize, that the man Severus Snape had become had nothing in common with her friend any more.

There bloomed a deep hatred in her chest for the man she had left behind. He had spoken about the death of her child as if it would not matter. She would never forget these things he had said, or how cold and sincere his emotions had been, as he had said it.

Severus Snape was an enemy of her Tribe.


	13. Chapter 13

Lily did not know how long she had sat on her knees, sobbing and from time to time hitting the ground with her fist in cold, but helpless fury. It were her husbands arms, that pulled her against his chest and out of the stupor she had found herself in after she had come home.

“Do I need to go and kill the bastard?”, James asked quietly.

Lily took a shuddering breath. “No.”

“You sure?”, James muttered, nuzzling his nose in her hair right over her ear. “I would have no problem with doing such a thing.”

Lily sighed. “Did you kill Peter?”

“No.” James hesitated. “I left him bound in the corridor of his flat to be found by the Aurors. In, say, two or three hours.”

“I left Severus stunned where I met with him. It should wear of in about an hour. - Or an hour since I left him, I’m not sure, when that was”, Lily confessed, a little bit irritated about herself.

“I don’t think you were ahead of me for more than a few minutes”, James assured. “I feel that you are grieving, but I’m not sure what exactly…?”

Lily buried her face in his chest, seeking his warmth to comfort her. “Not so sure myself, there. - The boy I knew before Hogwarts, probably. I don’t know when this boy got left behind and this horrible man emerged.”

“I’m not sure if I ever met this boy you remember”, James said quietly.

“Probably not.” Lily sighed. “He is … completely crazy. He will be a problem in the future.”

James frowned. “Maybe I should go and kill him.”

“He did nothing that would warrant that.” Wisely, Lily held back the ‘yet’ in that sentence. “The one thing he did to endanger us, he made up for it by warning Dumbledore and through him us.”

She felt James stiffen. “I think you need to explain this to me.”

Lily told him in short words, how Severus had confessed that he had heard part of the prophecy and brought it to his Lord. And how he had gone to warn Dumbledore, as soon as he had recognized the danger he had created for Lily. She ended with reciting the part of the prophecy that Severus had passed on to her.

“That’s clear as mud!”, James said irritated. “How did he get to our son from that? Or to Neville?”

“That was exactly my reaction”, Lily agreed. “But it seems the dark bastard doesn’t want to risk anything.”

James shook his head. “I’m more concerned about Dumbledore going with this crap, than the dark bastard.”

“Who knows, what the rest says, that Dumbledore is so focused on it, too”, Lily reminded.

“Master Arzunk said he could find the prophecy in their own records, if he knew part of it”, James remembered thoughtfully. “Maybe there is time enough before we leave today. Or he will be able to bring us an answer in a few days.”

“Do you really think to know it will change anything?”, Lily asked sceptically. In her opinion, it could not reveal anything note worthy.

James shrugged. “Maybe it will help us make sense out of Dumbledore’s behaviour. - It will overcome the disadvantage of Dumbledore having knowledge that could be important to us.”

Lily scoffed. “Or maybe he is just as crazy as the dark bastard, but able to hide it!”

“And that wouldn’t make him any less dangerous!”, James replied. “What happened between you and Snape, that makes you say he his crazy?”

Lily frowned, not sure how much she should tell her Sentinel, without driving him right into a rage, where we would actually jump up and hunt for Severus. “He is … he would be absolutely content with yours and Harry’s death. He thinks you have trapped me into a marriage against my will with an unplanned pregnancy, that we put into stasis.”

James huffed. “Definitely crazy!”

“His obsession with me is much more sinister than I had expected”, Lily continued hesitantly. “He wants me. Without the child, that he doesn’t even recognize as my own. And he doesn’t much care what I want in this scenario. I don’t think he will just give up this … dream.”

James took a deep breath. “This is not convincing me that he should stay alive, my love!”

Lily sighed. “I know. But … I think such an action would bring more harm to our Tribe in the end, than to just let him live.”

And maybe he would be able to overcome his obsession, if there was no contact between them at all for more than five years. She could not stop to hope that there was something left of the friend of her childhood. She had learned today that she would not be able to bring this friend back. But maybe there could be other things, which could overcome the experiences and decisions of the last years.

She frowned, when she thought about another thing Severus had said. “There seems to be a difference between being a Death Eater and just bearing the dark bastard’s mark.”

“How so?”, James asked confused.

Lily shrugged. “Severus said, he wasn’t asked to participate in those things, because it would impact his abilities to brew potions.”

“Shit!” James backed away, so he could look at her face. “That’s exactly what he said?”

“Yes.” Lily frowned. “I never heard of anything like this.”

“We wouldn’t learn in Hogwarts about those things. That’s a task for the master we apprentice under”, James explained. “I got those lectures all from my father pertaining the brewing of potions. Not all crafts are impacted by the same things.”

“So, what was Severus most likely speaking about?”, Lily asked.

“That the name, which was chosen for this group, is probably to take very literal.” James face was white and his nausea was even for her nearly physical. “Human sacrifices and cannibalism are part of a whole branch of black magic that would render a person nearly incapable to use any other form of magic afterwards. - And as most potions don’t need a lot of magic infused from the brewer, there is not a lot beside that, which could impact his abilities. - Nearly every other thing that could impact his magic would make it harder for him but not impossible to brew things that would be influenced by the magic of the brewer.”

“And your father just told you about those kinds of magic?”, Lily asked surprised.

James shook his head. “Only about their existence, enough to recognize it on sight. … If these things are true, than this organisation is a much bigger problem, than anyone is even near of suspecting.”

“And we still can’t do anything about it”, Lily said resigned.

“That’s not entirely true, though.” James shrugged. “Someone of our Tribe will have to find an opportunity to tell the ICW about the dark bastard. We just have to make sure they know of this suspicion. - And then we have to hope, that international pressure will actually be able to set something in motion here.”

“I’m fearful of the situation we will find here when we come back”, Lily muttered.

James hummed. “Me, too. But we are doing everything we can to head of an escalation. Little as that may be.”

“It doesn’t feel enough.” Lily took a deep breath. “How did your talk with Peter go?”

James looked down and scowled. “Apparently he choose to play at being my friend for seven years, so I wouldn’t choose him as my next target.”

“Wow.” Lily blew out a breath. “That’s harsh.”

He looked up at her sharply. “But you don’t think it’s unwarranted.”

Lily took her husbands hands in hers and tried very hard to not let her uncertainty show. “I liked your parents very much, but they didn’t do a good job in raising a child prepared for Hogwarts. Or other children in general. - You were an entitled little prick in first year, and I know that you know that, too!”

“I changed!”, James protested.

“Yes.” Lily nodded. “And it is Peters loss that he couldn’t see that and change, too. He had every opportunity to either back away from your friendship or grow together with you, Remus and Sirius.”

They had had long discussions about their years in school, not at least because Lily had detested the boy James had been in first year. The instant hate between him and her then best friend had only been part of that. James had been rash with other, had looked down on anyone who was not a Gryffindor, and had not been afraid to voice every little destain he felt very loudly.

At the same time, he had been fiercely protective of the three boys he had shared a dorm with. It had been this protectiveness in the beginning, that had started the series of pranks his group had become infamous for. The very first major prank that James and Sirius had planned and executed, had been in retaliation against a group of older Ravenclaws who had laughed about Peter’s stutter.

“He should have realized that you were never going against other Gryffindors”, Lily said quietly. “There was a lot of evidence for this in first year, and at the latest in second year. - It is Peter’s loss, that he held onto something he saw as truth only in the first few days of our time at Hogwarts.”

“I never realized it.” James looked devastated and through their bond Lily felt his guilt, too. “We basically lived together for seven years and I never saw that he was afraid of me!”

“Because he probably wasn’t afraid all the time”, Lily replied softly. “He must have felt secure in your group.”

James scoffed. “If so, he wouldn’t have turned his back on us in this way!”

Lily sighed. “To feel secure doesn’t equal seeing you as true friends. He may have felt pressured into being part of your group, but it made Hogwarts into a very easy and comfortable time for him. And there is a lot of resentment in him, that has nothing to do with this situation.”

James huffed. “Or maybe he grew to resent everything that resembled me even a little bit!”

“Believe me, that’s not true.” Lily shook her head. “He came to Hogwarts resenting everyone with even a little bit of monetary wealth. - Do you know why I couldn’t stand him from the start?”

“No.” James frowned. “I never asked, I think. And you never volunteered this information.”

Lily shrugged. “To criticize your friends was never a good idea. - When my parents brought me to the train for the first time, we were all very intimidated. We were standing in a corner of the platform, just looking at all those people buzzing around us, who were so different to us. … Peter stood near us. He was talking with his cousin, though I thought it was his older brother at the time. They were talking about all those rich kids, throwing around their money and entitlement. He was even sneering at me for the new trunk I had.”

“I don’t understand.” James shook his head with furrowed brows. “His family wasn’t exactly poor.”

“No”, Lily agreed. “There wasn’t much he had to do without. Doesn’t mean he didn’t resent everyone who had more money than his family from the very beginning. And he never got over it.”

“He never showed me this side of him”, James muttered.

Lily sighed. “Or maybe, you just didn’t want to see it.”

“What?”

“You are very invested into your friends”, Lily said softly. “And for the most part, that’s a good thing. You are very protective and loyal to them. But you are although blind to their faults.”

“I’m not!”, James protested.

“You have gotten better.” Lily smiled and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles. “I once talked with Remus about this. He told me, the near catastrophe that Sirius caused in sixth year was a wake up call for you.”

She still did not know what this situation had been about in full, because a teacher (and she strongly suspected Dumbledore) had placed a secrecy vow over all of them. She suspected, out of the snippets she had heard and the interaction between the friends, that Severus had nearly stumbled over Remus in a full moon night and had been rescued by James, and apparently Sirius had had a hand in creating this whole situation.

“I knew before that, that Sirius was often making rash decisions and not really thinking about any consequences, neither to him nor others!”, James tried to defend himself.

“But you didn’t see it as a problem. Or a fault”, Lily replied. “And for Peter … Sometimes, he said things and you took them in a completely different way than they were clearly meant. Especially as you were younger, in the first years of school.”

James swallowed hard. “Yeah. There was something Peter said earlier … How can two people have a conversation, and talk about two completely different things without noticing it?”

Lily sighed. “I don’t know. But you are not the only one that’s happened to.” There had probably been very similar discussions between her and Severus in the month or even years leading to the break in their friendship at the end of fifth year.

“I just wish, I hadn’t failed him so much”, James muttered.

“I feel the same for Severus. We just have to learn from our mistakes.” She frowned. “And speaking of mistakes, we probably shouldn’t linger here to much longer. - I should have done more than stun him, when I left Severus.”

The only thing she had thought about, when she had left him, was that she did not want to spent any more time in his presence. And she had been so furious, that she hadn’t even thought about detaining him a little more permanent than with a stunner.

“You think he will come here?”, James asked irritated.

Lily shook her head. “No, I think he will run to one of his two Masters, or to both of them. And I’m not sure if he will go first to Dumbledore or the dark bastard. Either way, both won’t be happy with our plans to leave.”

“Right.” James stood up abruptly, dragging Lily with him. “We have to catch an adoption anyway. So, no time to lose!”

Lily smiled hesitantly. “We do. We got through the bad parts of this day. Let’s concentrate on the good things that are ahead of us!”

It did not take long for them to close up the wards and create the key, that would enable a caretaker for the house to cross theses wards, but no one else. To leave the house behind did not hurt as much as Lily had expected in the last two days. Now that she knew about the connections to her Tribe and that they had gathered the whole Tribe around them, she could not imagine to not live near all of them. That would not have been possible in Godric’s Hollow anyway, and so it was not as great a loss as it would have been otherwise.

In Gringotts, they were ushered into a part of the bank Lily had never seen before, behind the entry-hall and even the offices, where account managers met with their clients. Their Tribe, without Eugenia and Charles with their future son, waited together in something, that looked a little bit like a conference room. Even Frank, Alice and Neville were there already.

The mood was buzzing with anticipation and excitement, even though there was nothing much to do other than wait. Lily used the time to reconnect with Alice, who she had not seen in a much to long time. She had missed her friend and her godson so much and she was relieved to see that Harry and Neville still got along well, especially after the problems between Harry and his cousin in the last days.

James and Lily were the only ones of the Tribe who Eugenia and Charles asked to witness the adoption. A pair of goblin warriors came for them and brought them even deeper into the structure of the bank to a door of stone. The warriors took a stand left and right to the door and motioned James and Lily through it.

Lily was astonished to find herself in a natural cave when she followed her Sentinel through the door. The reddish-green light seemed to come from a natural source inside of crystals, that littered the raw stone building a nearly perfect half sphere over their heads.

In the middle of the nearly round room was a ritual space prepared, that had little resemblance with anything Lily had seen until now. There lay a square cloth on the ground, about 13 to 13 feet. On it was placed a circle of nearly identical stones, each one carved with a single goblin-rune, and inside the stones was another circle of symbols drawn on the cloth. It took Lily a long moment to identify the letters as a very old variant of Greek.

Charles and Eugenia, with their soon to be son in her arms, stood already in the middle of these circles. They smiled at them, but not a word was uttered. They all three wore ritual robes of a dark green, the hems embroidered with a delicate pattern in gold, that Lily could not discern from the distance.

Master Arzunk, who had waited for them directly behind the door, took a very careful hold of Lily’s elbow and led her to a place to the left of the door. There he sat down on a stonebench and motioned her to take the seat beside her.

Meanwhile, James was received by a goblin priestess, who led him to a place just outside of the stone circle. From this place he would not be a participant of the ritual, but he would be a much more involved witness than Master Arzunk and Lily, as he would have to accept the adopted son of his cousin as part of the Potter family.

The priestess walked halfway around the circle, so she was directly across from James. She cleared her throat, which prompted Eugenia to sat the boy in her arms down between herself and Charles. Then both of them sat down, facing each other and the child with his back to his future mother. Eugenia took the boys hands in hers, with her palms up, and Charles put his hands on top of them, palms down.

“May Mother Earth and Lady Magic bless our joined endeavour.”

The surprising high voice of the priestess reverberated around the cave and startled Lily a little bit. Not at least because she had not expected to hear English in this ritual after the circle itself indicated to a great connection to Eugenia’s ancestry.

The priestess took a step forward and crossed the stone circle. There was just enough space between the stones and the drawn runes for her to stand. Her next words were not chanted in English any more and though Lily could not identify the language spoken, she presumed it to be an old Greek dialect, based on the circle the little family sat in.

Lily smiled, when with the first words of the priestess inside the circle, James griffin appeared behind him. He rested the underside of his beak on top of James’ head and gazed down into the circle. No one in the circle reacted to him, not even the priestess, who was the only one who had not seen him before. But Lily felt Arzunk startle slightly beside her and she could not fault him. James griffin was a magnificent appearance.

Lily could not see anything happening inside the circle, but she could feel the change in the emotions of Charles and Eugenia, who were suddenly very open to her. Both of them had already accepted the little boy between them as their child, but there was a profound change in their emotional tone the longer the priestess chanted.

Before Lily had become a mother herself, she had not understood the difference between an adoption in the muggle world and a magical adoption, because she had never had a magical connection to her parents herself. It had been a profound and eye opening experience to share such a connection with her own son and later on a very similar connection to her godson. For a magical child that was adopted, these connections to their new parents had to be created from the outside, hence the need for a ritual.

To experience this connection changed a person. Lily had lived through this change herself. And now she was experiencing it through Charles and Eugenia a second time on a level a lot deeper than she was comfortable with. But she did not seem able to rein in her emphatic senses.

There was a short exchange of words between the priestess and first Eugenia, then Charles, and Lily could feel something in the magic around them snap, even though she had no idea what it was. The priestess fell silent for a moment, then she said something in another language Lily did not know, before taking a careful step back and so leaving the ritual circle.

Charles took his son into his arms, who leaned his head against his fathers chest. Lily was relieved to see this reaction, as in the morning he had still shied away from Charles. She was sure it was the magical connection he now could feel, that let him trust the man who was holding him.

Charles stood up in a swift move and helped his wife up on her feet. Without leaving the middle of the circle, they turned to James, who was smiling broadly and vibrating with excitement. “Lord Potter, may I present you my son and heir, Ilias Karolos Potter.”

“With all my heart, I welcome your son Ilias in our family, cousin”, James said solemnly. His griffin shrieked ones, spread his wings wide in what Lily felt was his own welcoming of the child in their family, before he vanished, while his shriek still echoed in the cave.

Charles and Eugenia bowed both to James, before they left the ritual circle at the side were James stood without another word. Eugenia took Ilias from her husband and took James place facing the circle, while both men began to carry the stones one by one to a place behind the priestess and beside the cloth. Lily could not see it clearly from her position, but she thought they were building a smaller circle out of them.

As the last stone was placed beside the cloth, Eugenia and the priestess both stepped from it and James and Charles began to fold it in a clearly prepared pattern. They then placed it in the middle of the stone circle they had build. The new parents with their son, the priestess and James gathered around it and Lily frowned confused, when James set the cloth on fire. It took only a minute for the fire to die again and that was obviously the end of the ritual, as James drew his cousin laughing into a hug.

“What has you so confused, Lady Potter?”, Master Arzunk asked beside her.

“All of it, but I have never seen an adoption ritual, so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought any ritual had to be performed in a consistent language.”

“This kind of ritual, you will probably never see again. Expect if your Tribe makes a habit out of adopting abandoned children, that is.” Arzunk chuckled. “I’m not so sure, if we can easily dismiss this possibility, yet. - And you are right, in normal circumstances, it’s seldom a good idea to change the language during a ritual. But in this case the priestess opened the ritual in English in regards to the father, she led through the ritual in Greek with respect to the mother, and closed the ritual in our own language to honour this place.”

Lily nodded, deciding to process this information at a later point. There was another question, she needed an answer to. “Why did they burn the cloth?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Potter drew the runes on the cloth from the blood you provided from the birth parents. We couldn’t see it, but the cloth soaked up all connections out of little Ilias to his birth parents. Meanwhile he took on all the things that he needed from the blood runes which are drown inside his robe from the blood of his new parents. The burning of the cloth destroyed all of these connections for all eternity. This is a kind of adoption that doesn’t leave any evidence that there ever was an adoption to begin with.”

Lily blinked, not sure what she could say to that, or if she should say anything at all. But she was saved from finding a reply, when James and the new parents came to them.

James bowed before the goblin. “We are in your debt, Master Arzunk.”

Arzunk waved him off. “Nonsense. Any debt in the case of this little boy was settled yesterday, when you gave up your right of retribution to me.”

“Speaking of my sister”, Lily muttered uncomfortable. “We were careful, but we are very concerned about her threat of exposing our world.”

“No need”, Arzunk assured. “I had a team there yesterday night rooting around in their head. We are in the process of destroying or changing everything she had prepared. As soon as this task is completed, it will be my first step to let her run around convincing everyone she is speaking with that she is absolutely crazy.”

“I hope that is just the first of many steps!”, Eugenia said fiercely.

Arzunk showed a toothy grin. “Of course it is. I promised Lord Potter already to keep him updated on the process.”


	14. Chapter 14

James was not surprised that Charles, Eugenia and Ilias were surrounded by the rest of their Tribe first thing as they came back to them. Everyone wanted to congratulate the parents and meet Ilias officially, now that he had a name again.

“Ilias is a Greek name, right?”, Alice asked, cooing over the little boy. She and Frank had not met the child or his new parents before the adoption.

“Yes.” Eugenia smiled brightly. “My father's name. It would have been the tradition of my people to name our fist son after his paternal grandfather, but Charles was adamantly against it. We settled for the Greek variation of his name as a middle name, as seems to be tradition here in England anyway.”

Charles scoffed. “I hated it to have such a similar name to my father when I was young. I wouldn’t lay such a burden on my own son!”

Frank smirked. “I can see that.”

James got distracted from the excitement around Ilias by Master Arzunk and Bathilda Bagshot, who stood together a little to the side of the group. He was surprised to see the goblin bow slightly to the old woman.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Bagshot”, the goblin said earnestly.

Bathilda smiled warmly. “Likewise, Master Arzunk. It is a rare thing to meet a Warmaster of your folk, who is neither Sentinel nor Guide.”

Arzunk chuckled. “I chose this path for my first mastery out of spite. You see, I was the only one of my siblings, who wasn’t a Sentinel or a Guide. When I was young, I didn’t want to hear anything about having to choose another path than they did.”

Bathilda laughed softly. “The pleasures and foolishness of being young! - There is a lot of this in this room, thus you are in great company.”

“I grew out of it”, Arzunk replied dismissively. “And these young people will do so, too. - I grew to appreciate the part of our families inheritance that neither of my siblings could have taken on.”

“And it brought you to this place. Isn’t it exciting?”, Bathilda asked and James was not sure, what she was referring to.

“It truly is.” Arzunk inclined his head. “It’s rare that one is able to recognize the starting point of great events while living it, and not only when looking back from some point in the future.”

James scoffed, unheard by those he was listening to, but Bathilda nodded and said: “I consider myself very happy to make this experience in my old age. - It’s not the first time that I’m living through the first days of great events, mind you. But it is the first time that I know and not just suspect what is happening.”

Arzunk crossed his arms and let his eyes wander through the room. “And seeing this, I’m asking myself if it wasn’t Lady Magic, who led me on my path of youthful spitefulness. - These young people need someone, who can teach them to fight!”

“And of course you are offering yourself as a teacher”, Bathilda said smirking.

“Wouldn’t you in my place?”, Arzunk asked chuckling.

“Oh, that is exactly what I’m doing myself!”, Bathilda assured.

James flinched, when Lily took his hand unexpectedly. “Am I the only one thinking it dangerous, that those two are so amused?”, she asked him quietly with a quick look to Arzunk and Bathilda.

“You should hear what they are talking about”, James mutter, shaking his head. “We should all be afraid of their plans for us!”

“Did you ask Master Arzunk about the prophecy already?”, Lily wanted to know.

James sighed. “No.” It had completely slipped his mind somewhere during the adoption. To feel his family’s magic grow by including a new child in it had been too distracting.

But before James could even make one step in the direction of Arzunk, another goblin, young and obviously a messenger boy, entered the room and hurried to the older goblin. They exchanged words in their own language, and although James could not understand the words, he saw worry and anger bloom in Arzunk’s face.

When the messenger boy left, Arzunk strode hastily to him. “We may have a problem, Lord Potter.”

James frowned. “A problem of what kind?”

“It seems Albus Dumbledore is searching for you and demanding to speak to me”, Arzunk explained. “Why he thinks he would get information about any client from an account manager is a mystery.”

“That does answer the question to whom he would run first”, Lily muttered darkly.

James sighed frustrated. “As he wants you alive, it was the only viable choice he had.” Maybe he should have gone and killed Snape, regardless of what Lily had said.

“May I ask, who you are talking about?” Arzunk looked at them with raised eyebrows.

“I met with Severus Snape earlier in the day”, Lily explained. “He was once my best friend, and I had hoped … But he turned out to be…” - She took a deep breath. - “…an enemy of our Tribe.”

James shuddered. She hadn’t said it so clearly earlier, even though he had understood the meaning of her words as exactly that. But with these words, she very clearly had declared Snape as their enemy and the impact of it quietened every other conversation in the room.

Arzunk straightened his back. “I see. And Snape works for Dumbledore?”

“He works probably for only himself”, James muttered.

Lily nodded. “James is right. - Severus wears the dark bast- Voldemort’s mark on his arm. But he was the one who warned Dumbledore about Voldemort’s plans in attacking us because of the prophecy.”

“And I infer from Lord Potters earlier comment, that his reasons for this action have something to do with you, Lady Potter?”, Arzunk asked.

Lily shrugged uneasily. “The friendship we once shared changed for him into an obsession. He hopes to save my life. And mine alone.”

“Enemy of the Tribe, indeed”, Arzunk muttered.

“I should have done more than stun him when I left”, Lily said frustrated.

“You will learn out of this mistake, lass”, Arzunk assured. “What would you like to do with Dumbledore, Lord Potter?”

James hesitated. They had not planned to inform Dumbledore of their plan to leave England. If things had gone according to plan, Dumbledore would have just found their house in Godric’s Hollow abandoned on the next day. But truth was, he just had not thought about what to do with Dumbledore, because there had been so much else already to think about.

He looked to Frank, who just shrugged. They had talked about the possibility that Dumbledore could become a great opponent upon their return. They had Arcturus Black and Augusta Longbottom to monitor Dumbledore and interfere with any manipulations during their absence. But maybe he should take the chance to part with Dumbledore on terms, that would not make the older man suspect them of outright going against him.

“I think I should talk with him”, James decided.

Lily sighed. “I’ll accompany you.”

“As will I”, said Arzunk. “Let’s go. We shouldn’t waste any more time on him than strictly necessary.” He turned and left the room, without looking back to assure himself that James and Lily were even following him.

He led them back nearly to the entrance hall and into a small office, that showed a lot more splendour and held at the same time a lot less comfort for the client, than James had ever seen before. He appreciated the massage, but suspected, Dumbledore had never seen any other offices and so would not get the massage himself.

For a second Dumbledore could not keep the surprise from his face, but than he smiled broadly. “Thank you for saving time and bringing the Potters to me, right away.” He waited for a few seconds, but when no one moved, he said dismissively: “I would like to speak with them alone, thank you.”

James could not help but snort. “Very bold to dismiss Master Arzunk from his own office. - We are just here because we are interested in the things you wanted to talk about with our account manager. It is a very unusual request to ask for an account manager of another client. Just ignore us and ask Master Arzunk whatever you wanted to ask him.”

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes. “My inquiries to … Master Arzunk would have pertained his knowledge about your whereabouts, James. I was very worried when I came to your home earlier and found it abandoned!”

James sat down on one of the two chairs Arzunk conjured for him and Lily. “Really? - You warned us of an increased risk to our family. Didn’t you do that so we would take appropriate steps to protect us?”

Lily sat down beside him, patience impersonated to everyone looking at her, and Arzunk took the chair behind the desk, eyes never leaving Dumbledore.

“Of course.” Dumbledore frowned. He regarded James with a long, inquiring gaze, then he looked to Arzunk. “I would like to speak alone with Mr. and Mrs. Potter.”

Arzunk blinked lazily. “The average fee for the use of one of our conference rooms is fifteen galleons per hour. They have to be booked two month in advance.”

James could barely hold back his laugh, and to feel Lily’s amusement was not making it any easier.

“You misunderstood me, goblin”, Dumbledore sneered. “I ask you to leave this room. For the third time now, I might add!”

James winced in the face of this blatant disrespect.

“I understood just fine, _wizard_ ”, Arzunk replied smirking. “And I told you under what terms your demand could be met. - This institution is a bank, not a meeting point for social gatherings. If you want to talk to Lord and Lady Potter privately, you have to invite them to leave with you or come back in two month and pay for the conference room.”

“Fine.” Dumbledore stood up. “James, Lily, we are leaving.”

James shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “We still have things to do here.”

It was a nice feeling to see that he had caught Dumbledore completely unaware. The older man took two whole seconds before he even turned back around from the door.

“I had thought you would take this situation a lot more serious”, Dumbledore said gravely. “You do remember that you risk the life of your son with your little antics, don’t you?”

James sighed. “What do you want from us, Albus?”

“Do you really want to talk about the current situation _here_?”, Dumbledore asked with a gaze to Arzunk.

“Master Arzunk is our account manager. There is barely anything I keep back from him”, James replied.

“You trust a goblin so much?”

James snorted. “They are managing all of our money. Everyone who doesn’t trust them and yet leaves their gold in the goblins hands is a fool.”

Arzunk cleared his throat. “I’m aware that your family was never in a position to warrant their own account manager, so you are in no position to know anything about the relationship between a family and their account manager. - Lord Potter’s family and my own family have had generations to build a profound trust between us. There is no power in this world that could make me betray Lord Potter’s secrets or his trust.”

Dumbledore snorted, but he did not comment on Arzunk’s words. He did not sit down again, choosing to look down his nose at James and Lily. “I had thought you would prepare for tomorrow and not abandon your home, after we had agreed on the Fidelius.”

Lily spoke for the first time: “But we didn’t agree. You told us you would come back tomorrow and didn’t even let us enough time to react.”

“Or argue about the many things why the Fidelius is a bad idea”, James continued. “We had an in depth discussion about it with part of the Order a few month back. You missed it because you had to leave early.”

Dumbledore looked puzzled. “And why is that?”

James snorted. “Let’s begin with the fact that everyone who had ever known where we lived, would know that we had used the Fidelius after suddenly forgetting where we live. - Then there is the risk to the Secret Keeper. They can’t live inside the Fidelius, because it would damage the magic, but they had to hide themselves, too. Whoever we would choose, Voldemort would hunt them down to get the secret of our location.”

Dumbledore frowned. “Are you intending to lead his man directly to you?”

“The taboo isn’t working inside this building”, Arzunk replied. “It’s really easy to end such a thing. I have no idea why your government hasn’t already done so.”

“And I don’t fear this man.” James shrugged.

“And yet you intend to leave you country like a coward to flee from him”, Dumbledore said.

“Ah, so your little spy did tell you what he get out of my head.”

James head snapped to his wife. “Out of your head?” She had not told him anything about that.

Lily sighed. “He tried anyway. All he got out of me, was that we intent to leave before I knocked him on his ass.”

James decided to come back to this at a later time. He wanted to know what exactly Snape had done to Lily, but now was not the time or place for such a discussion.

“Severus is just very worried about you, Lily”, Dumbledore stated. “He is trying to protect you.”

Lily shook her head. “He is really not. - And if you’re here to plead Severus’ case, you can just leave. I don’t want to hear anything about him.”

Dumbledore sighed deeply. “A man with a broken heart can do a lot of foolish things. You shouldn’t judge him so hart. He has come back on the right path.”

“I’m not judging him for the mark he is wearing, although I do find it infuriating. I’m judging him for telling me my son isn’t my son and his death wouldn’t matter anyway.”

“Is Snape really all you want to talk about?”, James asked condescending.

Dumbledore shook his head. “You both are making a grave mistake!”

“We are protecting our family”, James replied.

“By leaving England, you are endangering your family! I have not the resources to protect you in another country! And what will happen to you responsibility to the Order?”, Dumbledore asked. “And your job at the ministry, James?”

James shrugged. “The Aurors got my resignation this morning. And there is no binding responsibility to the Order. We weren’t a great help to you anyway. And we couldn’t be of any help neither if we would hide under the Fidelius.”

“You do have a moral obligation!”

“To protect our son, yes”, James agreed. “And that’s exactly what we are doing. - We didn’t take any vows for the Order. And I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t even exist if you had come up with such an idea, because no one would have taken it.”

“So you are just giving up the fight against the Dark Lord?”, Dumbledore asked in false disappointment.

“It shouldn’t be the fight of the few people you have gathered around you anyway”, Lily argued. “You should concentrate you energy to convince the ministry to do something against him.”

“I’m working on this every day!”, Dumbledore replied condescending. “But as long as I’m not successful, there needs to be someone to stop Voldemort and the Death Eaters!”

“If you say so. But it won’t be us any more.” James crossed his arms. “As you said yourself, our first priority has to be our son. And he won’t grow up inside something that would resemble a prison!”

“And I assume you are taking young Mr. Black with you?”, Dumbledore asked. “Do you think that a wise choice?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You can’t just dismiss his family background!”, Dumbledore insisted. “And what of Peter and Remus? Do you want to just leave them behind? Remus is on a mission at the moment, he doesn’t even know what’s happening.”

James looked at his wrist watch. “Peter should be taken into the custody of my former colleagues right about now. - While Lily was meeting with your spy, I visited Peter. I was very disappointed to find him bearing Voldemorts mark on his arm.”

“And did you know that Severus knew of this?”, Lily asked, before Dumbledore could say anything. “Peter knows a lot about what is happening in the order. Did your spy inform you of the identity of Voldemorts spy in your group?”

There was really nothing Dumbledore could say without putting himself on the spot. “I’m sure you are mistaken about how long Severus knew, or if he could even be sure! - Isn’t such a treason only more reason to stay and fight?”

James shook his head. “Actually, it’s even more reason to leave, as I have no idea who I could trust with the safety of my son. - And you won’t have to spare any resources in protecting my family. It will be a lot easier to hide outside of England, where Voldemorts influence is practically non-existent.”

“I fear you are greatly mistaken with this assumption!”, Dumbledore cautioned.

“Why are you so invested in keeping us here?”, Lily asked. “There is nothing we can do here!”

“Here I can protect you!”, Dumbledore said.

“If that were true, a lot of people wouldn’t have died in the last few month”, James replied. “There is a lot of evidence, that no one is able to protect themselves inside this country, as long as the ministry keeps ignoring the problem.”

“If everybody would leave, Voldemort would win!”, Dumbledore accused.

James shrugged. “That’s oversimplified. Not everyone is so directly targeted, as we are. - What does the prophecy exactly say?”

“I already told you that there is no reason for you to know this. The less people know of the prophecy, the less likely it is for Voldemort to learn all of it.”

“I already identified the betrayer under my friends”, James reminded.

“And if Peter isn’t the only one?”, Dumbledore asked.

James raises his eyebrows. “Can you proof such an accusation?”

“You can’t change our minds, Albus”, Lily said, when the older man remained silent. “We are leaving, because it’s the best decision we can make for our son!”

“You can’t protect him from meeting his destiny!”, Dumbledore bellowed.

“But maybe it’s Neville’s destiny and not Harry’s”, Lily argued.

Dumbledore scoffed. “You really believe that, with those rumours of young Neville being a squib?”

Lily sighed and looked to James. “We should send Augusta Longbottom a note that her brother-in-law is getting out of hand. Again.”

James nodded. “We will. - If you told us the prophecy we could prepare Harry for his destiny.”

“It’s not so easy! This is not a game, James!”, Dumbledore scolded.

“I know. But I think you have your own plans for us. And I’m not entirely sure if they would lead to us staying alive!”, James accused.

Dumbledore frowned. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I’m talking about you putting a compulsion on Sirius, so he would tell me to choose Peter as Secret Keeper. And that, while you probably knew form Snape where Peter’s true loyalty lies”, James said cold. “I don’t trust you, Albus.”

“I did no such thing!”

“I was sceptical, because Sirius and I had had our suspicions about Peter for a while now, and suddenly he was coming up with this nonsense!”, James explained. “The person I asked to check Sirius had a hard time finding those compulsions, but they did.”

He did not want to outright lie, just in case he would ever have to provide this person. So what if had spoken about himself in the third person?

“This person has to be mistaken about the source of the compulsion. Who was it anyway? - There could be a compulsion on Sirius now!”

“It doesn’t matter”, James replied. “Nothing what you say matters any more. We are leaving and raising our son somewhere where he can be a normal child. And while I will prepare him, I really hope Voldemort will just forget about him.”

“Where are you going?”, Dumbledore demanded to know.

James snorted. “Do you really think we would disclose that to you?”

“You will loose everything your ancestors have build up here if you leave now!”, Dumbledore accused. “Are you really willing to throw all this just away?”

James cocked his head. “The alternative is to loose my life or my son. Or both. So, yes.”

Dumbledore straightened his back. “If this is your last word, than I won’t hold you back any longer.” He turned and left the room.

Arzunk took his time to check the room for any surveillance magic, before he looked at James darkly. “You, Lord Potter, have a lot to learn about diplomacy!”

James grinned. “And you have five years to teach me. Or is it just fighting with magic and a sword you want to teach me?”

“James!” Lily poked him into his side.

“The path of a Warmaster contains a lot more than magic and swordsmancraft”, Arzunk assured. “And you will suffer through learning it all in the coming years.”

James inclined his head. “It will be my honour. - Dumbledore left, believing that I don’t plan to come back. I think that is a better starting point than letting him wonder about our whereabouts or our plans.”

Arzunk huffed. “I see your point. Nevertheless this conversation could have gone better. You put a lot of your cards on the table.”

James shrugged. “There is no sense in crying over spilled milk. And I would feel better if we left as soon as possible.”

“Yes, you are not alone with this opinion.” Arzunk nodded gravely. “But before we leave, I would like to talk with your whole Tribe about this prophecy.”

“I learned part of it earlier in the day.” Lily jumped at the opportunity. “When I spoke with Severus. Apparently it was him who heard part of it and brought it to Voldemort and later warned Dumbledore.”

“What did he tell you?” Arzunk reached for parchment and quill and wrote down the words, while Lily recited those she had learned. “That will be helpful in eliminating the last doubts. - Are you able to find the way back to the room where your Tribe is waiting on your own?”

James frowned, but nodded. “Of course.”

Arzunk left his chair and came around the desk. “Very good. I will join you shortly, I just have to get something out of our archives. It won’t take long at all.”

James shared a look with Lily, as Arzunk ushered them out of the office and left them to their own devices. But she looked as clueless, as he felt himself and just shrugged. So he took her hand and turned in the direction of their waiting tribe.

“Did you just accept an apprenticeship under Master Arzunk on the fly?”, Lily asked after a long moment.

James hesitated. “I’m not sure. Is that even possible? Do goblins accept magicans as apprentices?”

Lily snorted. “This is such a typically Gryffindor move from you!”

“I’m sure there will be detailed negotiations about a contract”, James assured her.

Lily shook her head and laughed. “And I think you just signed yourself up for five years of hurt!” As she said that, they re-entered the room, where the rest of their Tribe was waiting and was again cooing over Ilias.

Sirius turned to them. “What will be five years of hurt?”

“My husband and Sentinel accepted an apprenticeship under Master Arzunk without even negotiating about a contract”, Lily answered, sill laughing.

James groaned. “I’m sure it was still just an informal acknowledgement and the formal contract will follow!”

“Goblins don’t do formal contracts”, Bathilda said smirking. “Are we talking about his Warmastery or his mastery in finances and economics?”

“The Warmastery”, Lily answered for him, while she took her son out of his godfathers arms. And for once, Harry left Sirius willingly and even eagerly. But after half a day of separation from his mother, James was not surprised about it.

“Both”, Arzunk corrected, as he stepped into the room through a door James had not seen before. “Please take a seat, all of you.”

James felt a little bit queasy, as he followed the instruction. He felt it a great honour that Arzunk was even contemplating to apprentice him. But he should have had probably a few or even a lot more questions before accepting such a thing.

“What did Dumbledore want?”, Charles asked and James noticed that he and Eugenia had changed out of the ritual robes.

“He doesn’t like that we are leaving, but he wouldn’t give us a good reason to stay”, James explained. “I may have told him a little to much. But for the moment, he doesn’t know who is leaving with us besides Sirius, and he thinks we don’t plan to come back.”

Frank huffed. “Not all lost then.”

“Quite”, Arzunk agreed. “We should talk about Dumbledore and his machinations at a later time. Preferably when we have more information about him. - As I understand it, the reason why we are all gathered here is a prophecy.”

“More or less”, Frank said, while most of the table nodded along.

“And I just witnessed Dumbledore’s unwillingness to share it with those it pertains to”, Arzunk continued. “The gall of this wizard is infuriating! - As I told Lord Potter yesterday, the Hall of Prophecies in your ministry is not the only place where prophecies are documented. With the little information he could give me yesterday, I was able to find eleven possible prophecies.”

Bathilda frowned. “That is a lot!”

“It is.” Arzunk inclined his head. “As Lady Potter was able to learn the first part of the prophecy we are talking about today, I was able to identity the one we were searching for.”

The heads of all adults, expect of James and Arzunk, turned to Lily.

“Didn’t you meet with Snape earlier”, Remus asked. “How would he know the prophecy?”

“Snape is Dumbledore’s spy. And the one, who overheard the prophecy and brought it to Voldemort in the first place”, James replied.

“And he just told you all this, Lily?”, Sirius asked incredulous.

Lily shook her head. “I would be really happy, if we could not speak about Severus for a while. Especially as long as we have little ears listening.” She looked at Arzunk. “What’s the whole prophecy then?”

Arzunk read aloud:  _“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..”_ (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37, J.K.Rowling)

“The Dark Lord will mark him as his equal?”, Alice asked. “That means, as long as we can keep him away from our sons, he can’t mark them and this whole thing will be invalid?”

“’Invalid’ is the wrong word in this case”, Eugenia said quietly. “But I think you mean the right thing. Neither Neville nor Harry will have a destiny to be met as long as neither is marked by this Dark Lord. - But the prophecy will be a possibility for as long as Voldemort and one of the boys live.”

“And this power he knows not?”, Sirius asked. “Would they get it because of being marked or do they have it now?”

Eugenia shrugged. “We can’t be sure.”

“There is a second prophecy”, Arzunk said, before anyone else could ask another question.

All heads whipped to him.

“What d-did you say?”, James stuttered.

Arzunk looked directly at him. “There is a second prophecy linked to this one.  But I can’t tell you a lot about it, because it is sealed.”

“And what does that mean?”, Charles asked.

“That this is an old prophecy.” Eugenia took a deep breath. “A prophecy is recorded when it is spoken, in the most cases. There have to be witnesses for the various recording charms in existence to work. Those recordings are sealed, as soon as every witness is dead and any notes taken by those witnesses about the prophecy are lost.”

Arzunk nodded.  “There is another condition to  be met in our archive. The prophecy must already be in play.”

“Please explain”, James asked through clenched teeth.

“Whatever events this prophecy describes, they have already started. It will unseal as soon as it has been met or something happens that makes it invalid.”

“And what does it mean that it is linked to this other prophecy?”, Remus asked.

“One of two things”, Arzunk answered. “Either both pertain to the same events and in most cases that means, both must be met or none; or if one is met, the other becomes invalid.”

“I don’t like this”, James muttered darkly. “Now we know one of them, but the situation hasn’t changed a bit!”

“You are wrong”, Bathilda said. “No one knows the content of the older prophecy. That means, that no one can influence the events one way or another. There is no reason for us to worry about it, because it will happen one way or another and we won’t even know it.”

Lily shook her head.  “ It can’t be this easy.”

“But it is”, Eugenia agreed with Bathilda. “We can’t influence it. We will know when those conditions have been met, because it will unseal, but nothing else will happen. - For the other prophecy, we should still try all to heed the warning and eliminate the threat through Voldemort, before he can mark one of the children. We’ll take it as the warning it was meant to be.”

“I’m not sure I understand, what it is warning about”, Sirius muttered.

“Another thing to analyse”, Bathilda replied. “But I think one thing we can already conclude, and that is Dumbledore’s reason for trying to set you up. And probably why he tried to hide the prophecy.”

Frank scowled.  “ He wanted to create a situation where the da- Voldemort would be able to mark either Neville or Harry, so the rest of the prophecy would have to be met.”

“That is the most logical conclusion”, Arzunk agreed. “But I propose, that we table any further discussion of these things until a later time. - The plans I made yesterday with Lord Potter would have seen us leave this country more than half an hour ago.”

“How are we leaving?”, James asked.

“Don’t you have to tell us your plans first?”, Frank replied. “Where are we going?”

James shrugged grinning.  “ Master Arzunk has chosen the first stop. When we are there, I will tell you what I have thought about.”

A rzunk showed a toothy smile, that James thought could  not bode well. “Please follow me.”

The goblin went to the door he had come through just minutes ago and held it open for them. They all were taken by surprise, when they found themselves in front of the carts which normally took them to their vaults. Arzunk was the last one to step through the door and it vanished into the stone when he closed it.

“Yesterday, I asked you a question, Lord Potter. Do you remember it?”

James frowned. “You asked me a lot of questions. But in relation to this place, you asked if I truly believed there was enough space under the bank for all theses vaults.”

“Indeed.” Arzunk nodded. “The truth is, that we store the vaults in … a kind of pocket dimension, is probably the closest translation for it. They are created in a way, that all vaults of costumers from the same country are in the same pocket dimension. And while costumers can normally only leave through the branch they have come from, they are connected to all our branches.”

“This is fascinating!”, Bathilda called out.

Arzunk raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “I fear you won’t be able to share the knowledge I am authorized to share with your Tribe through any of your books.”

Bathilda chuckled. “I fully understand that. Nevertheless, it is fascinating!”

Arzunk inclined his head. “My folk uses this way to travel quite a lot. Now, Lord Potter, you will have to tell us of your plans.”

James took a deep breath. “Okay. In the end, I think we should settle down somewhere, that isn’t to much ahead or behind England in time. - But for now … I read in the family grimoire about temples that are some kind of a place of wisdom for Sentinels and Guides. And as Lily and I still need to learn a lot about our abilities, I thought it prudent, that we start at such a place.”

He was relieved to see everyone around him nodding.

Lily took his hand and smiled. “That does sound like a good plan.”

“There are several locations mentioned”, James continued. “But only one comes with actual directions.”

“Okay, James, enough with this tension!” Sirius laughed. “Tell us already where we are going!”

“To Peru.”

**The End**


End file.
